ANC parliamentary members must vote according to their conscience  

4 April 2016

The Freedom Front Plus calls on all parliamentary members, but more specifically on members of parliament of the ANC to vote responsibly and according to his or her conscience in tomorrow’s(Tuesday 5 April) vote in parliament to remove the president from office.

If the ANC caucus members decide to once again ignore the facts of the past week, history will judge them very harshly and negatively in a couple of years from now. It will also be seen that they are once again ignoring the Constitution and are not fulfilling their constitutional duties.

ANC parliamentary members took an oath to obey and observe the Constitution when they assumed their duties. They also undertook “…to fulfil my duties as a member of the National Assembly to the best of my abilities.”

Tomorrow will be the test to which extent parliamentary members take their oath and functions as members of parliament seriously.

The president is elected by parliament in a secret ballot (see Constitution, Annex 3 Section 6(a)). That is why it is only reasonable that voting should take place by secret ballot when it deals with removing the president from office in terms of Section 89 (1). Such a decision can be taken.

Everybody agrees that last week’s Constitutional Court judgment is far-reaching and extremely important for democracy in South Africa. Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng found that: “The president failed to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution.”

Members of parliament will have the opportunity tomorrow to get South Africa out of this constitutional quagmire. If they miss this opportunity, it will become a protracted, painful process in which the ANC itself will suffer ever more damage.

Issued by Pieter Mulder, FF Plus Leader, 4 April 2016