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The parties claim Mbete has failed to distance herself from her political party and add that her roles as Speaker and national chairperson of the ANC are “incompatible”
Opposition parties are tackling Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete by piggybacking on an Agang SA court action to force her to recuse herself when Parliament debates a motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma.
This week, the DA and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) joined the United Democratic Movement (UDM), Congress of the People (Cope) and Agang’s legal action asking the court to force Mbete to recuse herself and to rule her not fit and proper to occupy her position.
They also want an interdict ruling that motions of no confidence in the president be voted on by secret ballot.
The Western Cape High Court will sit tomorrow and Tuesday and three judges have been set aside to hear the matter.
Agang approached the court in December last year after its acting leader, Andries Tlouamma, tabled a motion of no confidence in November in the National Assembly and indicated that his party did not want Mbete to preside over the debate and that they wanted voting done by secret ballot.
The motion was scheduled for debate in February this year, but Mbete refused to recuse herself and the assembly also rejected the request for a secret ballot.
The UDM and Cope have since joined Agang SA’s court application as co-applicants, while the DA and EFF are not part of the legal process, but support the matter in principle.
In court papers, the opposition parties say the National Assembly’s Rule 102A does not adequately correct a defect.
This was identified by the Constitutional Court in a matter between former DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko and former Speaker Max Sisulu to the extent that it does not provide for a political party represented in the National Assembly or one of its members to enforce the right to exercise the power to have a motion of no confidence in the president scheduled for a debate and voted upon in the National Assembly within a reasonable time – or at all.
They want the court to order the National Assembly to amend the rule to correct the alleged defect adequately.
They also want the court to declare Mbete not fit and proper to hold office as Speaker and want it to interdict her and prevent her from presiding over the debate of and vote on the motion of no confidence.
They also want the court to declare that she cannot continue to simultaneously hold the positions of chairperson of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) and Speaker.
The parties claim Mbete has failed to distance herself from her political party and add that her roles as Speaker and national chairperson of the ANC are “incompatible”.
“The Speaker’s denial that her concurrent role as NEC chairperson has impeded, or ought to impede, her ability to perform the functions of Speaker of the National Assembly is manifestly at odds with her own admitted conduct,” read the court papers.
“For example, the Speaker concedes she was present at an NEC meeting in September 2014 where the president instructed ANC MPs to use their majority to crush the opposition in Parliament.”
DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane said the party was in support of the Agang motion.
“We believe it will be important, particularly if we are going to vote in a motion pertaining to the president, because it should be the same process that is used when you vote to elect the president.”
Parliament is opposing the application and argues that even the applicants concede that parliamentary rules do not provide for a secret ballot.
It also contends that the applicants do not rely on “any single provision of the Constitution”.
