STATEMENT BY THE SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ON THE APPROPRIATE VOTING PROCEDURE REGARDING THE MOTION OF NO CONFIDENCE IN THE PRESIDENT
MONDAY, 7 AUGUST 2017
Fellow South Africans, following the Constitutional Court decision that I, as Speaker of the National Assembly, have the constitutional power to prescribe the voting procedure in a motion of no confidence in the President of the Republic of South Africa to be conducted in the National Assembly, either by way of a secret ballot or open vote, and having taken due, independent and impartial consideration of all the legal, constitutional and political factors below, especially those articulated by the Constitutional Court, in a balanced and rational manner, bearing in mind that some of these factors may be contradictory in nature, I take this opportunity to present to the country my decision on the matter.
I have taken this extraordinary approach in the interests of transparency and also having taken account of the huge interest in this matter which has been expressed in various quarters of society. I, therefore, wish to appeal to members of the media that I will not take questions after this briefing.
At the outset, I wish to indicate that it is always important for societal actors, in particular political parties, to have confidence in our courts and in our Parliament. I, therefore, find the public pronouncements and calls that the Speaker will act in a partisan manner, reprehensible and unpalatable for our democracy. I am elected by the Assembly to perform the role of Speaker and as long as that has not changed I will not recuse myself. Thus, the call for the Speaker to recuse herself from the proceedings tomorrow has no constitutional basis and is, therefore, legally misplaced.
Fellow South Africans, all facts, factors, circumstances and information available to me that I have taken into consideration in making this decision, include the following: