ANCYL statement on the upcoming No Confidence vote
7 August 2017
The African National Congress Youth League reiterates its long held position that the South African opposition parties, marshalled by the DA and EFF, are engaged in an effort to short-change electoral democracy through a palace coup. Their bid to have a Vote of No Confidence passed against the President of the Republic, Comrade Jacob Zuma, is not a matter of commitment to constitutionality but an attack on the democratic choice of the majority- as expressed through the 2014 General Elections.
This attempt on their part will not succeed on 8 August in the same way that it has not succeeded before. The fact that they are a minority is not by accident but a practical expression of the continuing confidence in the African National Congress by the democratic masses of the people. As a result, the ANC representatives in parliament have to discharge their revolutionary duty of defending this confidence of the democratic masses by voting down this motion by the undemocratic minority of elite forces.
Herein, we want to sketch out the real objectives and strategy of this undemocratic minority of forces to effect regime change outside the will of the popular majority.
The strategy of these undemocratic minority of elite forces rallies around an attempt to plunge the country into political crisis by means of a palace coup; to be set in motion through Section 102(2) of the Constitution. They hope that this Motion of No Confidence would succeed and that, consistent with Section 102(2) of the Constitution, the President would have to resign with the entire Cabinet. To this extent, the Executive Arm of the State would effectively collapse and most likely lead to a situation of political upheaval.