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Secret ballot submissions are in. Now the baton is in Mbete’s hands

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Minutes into the sitting in the National Assembly on Tuesday, 5 April 2016 opposition leaders called for Speaker Baleka Mbete to recuse herself.
Minutes into the sitting in the National Assembly on Tuesday, 5 April 2016 opposition leaders called for Speaker Baleka Mbete to recuse herself.
Parliament of South Africa

Opposition parties have made their submissions to Speaker Baleka Mbete’s office for a secret ballot on a motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma.

Political parties – including the Democratic Alliance (DA), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) – and members of Parliament had until the end of business on Friday, July 14 to formally put forward reasons for and against the use of a secret ballot.

Mbete said she would take into account all viewpoints and make her decision thereafter.

Last month, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng ruled that Mbete had the power to decide whether or not to hold a secret ballot, and had been wrong in stating earlier that she didn’t.

Opposition parties, the ACDP, APC, Cope, DA, EFF, IFP and UDM, held a joint press conference on Thursday in Pretoria to say they did not want Mbete to preside over the motion of no confidence debate.

The UDM’s Bantu Holomisa said that Mbete lacked impartiality and should recuse herself from the debate.

“We have heard Baleka saying members of the ANC must not vote against the president,” Holomisa said.

“We are concerned about [her] accusations that certain judges are biased against her party.

"This undermines her duty to act as a liaison between Parliament as an institution and the other arms of state.

“This means that she still fails to separate her role as head of the National Assembly,” he said.

EFF leader Julius Malema said they would prefer it if someone like deputy speaker Lechesa Tsenoli presided instead.

The motion is set to be held on August 8.

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