A vote of no confidence is a vote of conscience

17 March 2015

Note to Editors: The following speech was delivered by the DA Parliamentary Leader, Mmusi Maimane MP, during a debate on a DA motion of no confidence in the President, Parliament, March 17 2015.

Madame Speaker, 

Honourable Members,

Bagaetsho, 

Dumelang,

My deepest condolences to Minister Chabane's family and the ANC for their loss. We mourn his passing and hope that his family will soon find peace during this trying time.

Robale ka Kgotso 

Today is not a pleasant day.

Nobody wants South Africa to succeed as much as we do.

Every member of this House wants our country to be a place of prosperity and hope for every citizen. 

We all want opportunities to be extended to those denied them in the past.

And we all want a President we can believe in. Somebody with the commitment and the vision to take us forward.

We had that in Nelson Mandela.

When Madiba was President, life was not perfect. 

But he gave us hope. He gave us the belief that we were moving in the right direction. 

He respected and upheld the Constitution, and placed the needs of the people before the needs of the party.

He gave us a glimpse of what a non-racial and united South Africa would look like. 

He was a selfless leader who embodied the democratic dream.

But the light of that dream has since faded, as the ANC has become a party that places the needs of one man above those who elected them to power.

On the day of his inauguration in 2009, President Zuma made a commitment to South Africans to "[serve] our nation with dedication, commitment, discipline, integrity, hard work and passion."

Yet in the six years that President Zuma has presided over our country, the dream of President Nelson Mandela has been all but destroyed, and the integrity of the Office of the President decimated.

Madam Speaker, the vote before us today is not only one of no confidence, it is a vote of conscience.

We cannot in good conscience allow the needs of millions of South Africans to be superseded by the agenda of one man, while we look on in silence.

For too long the Members to my right have turned a blind eye to the destruction of our democracy being perpetrated by the President, and his project of state capture on the grandest scale.

It is on a day like this that I wish we were not constrained by the straight-jacket of our party system.

Because I know that many of you on this side of the House will vote against your conscience today.

You will vote to keep a man in office who is doing everything possible to evade 783 counts of fraud, corruption, and racketeering. 

You will vote for a thief. A man who stole the people's money to build his R 246 million home, while millions of South Africans go to bed hungry every night. 

And, yes, I can say that. Because the Constitutional Court says I can.

You will vote for a man willing to break democratic institutions so that he can escape accountability. 

You will vote for a man who believes the ANC is above the Constitution; a man who believes he is a law unto himself.

When the Public Protector exposed him, he dismissed her as an "ombudsman," and failed to abide by her remedial actions.

When the Scorpions got too close, they were crushed and replaced with the Hawks. And when it looked like the Hawks were about to swoop, they had their wings clipped.

When SARS started investigating fringe tax benefits for Nkandla, it was subjected to a purge of its executive management.

And as the threat of the ANC losing elections grows, the IEC was targeted for capture through the appointment of the President's Special Projects Advisor as Commissioner.

Coupled with plans to turn the SABC from public to state broadcaster, we are today witnessing a full-on attack on freedom of expression and free and fair elections.

Yesterday we faced the President in court to reinstate the charges he has successfully evaded for 5 years and have established a timeline that will lead to his prosecution.

Yet in the midst of our attempts to see justice served, the President launched an inquiry into the head of the NPA while overlooking the transgressions of loyalists in key positions.

The President needs his job to avoid prosecution. He needs his job to keep enriching himself, his friends and his family. 

We have seen how Khulubuse Zuma destroyed a mine and the jobs of workers. We have seen how the children of ANC leaders were awarded a R631 million tender for toilets in the Eastern Cape, even though their company does not formally exist.

And we have seen how the Gupta family had the red carpet rolled out for them to land at Waterkloof.

Through all of these scandals the President has denied all knowledge and complicity.

President Zuma has become President "I did not know".

When asked about the upgrades to his very own home at Nkandla, he responded that he did not know and did nothing to bring them about. But nor did he do anything to stop them.

When asked about his friends the Guptas, landing at Waterkloof, once again the President's response was that he did not know and did not intervene.

And when challenged on his failure to appear before this House for oral questions he again claimed ignorance, saying that he was waiting for Parliament to ask him to come.

But, Honourable Members, we know this is not the case.

The fact of the matter is that in all these matters the President did know. He knew all too well but he did nothing - just as he sat and watched as Parliament collapsed before his eyes.

The real tragedy is this: the longer that President Zuma has his job, the more South Africans find themselves without one.

South Africa's economic growth for 2014 was a mere 1.4%, down from 1.9% in 2013. For 2015 it is projected to be 2%. This is a far cry from the 5% required by the NDP.

While President Zuma has blamed this on the global economic climate, growth in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2014 averaged out to 4.5%.

Since President Zuma assumed office in 2009, the number of unemployed South Africans has grown by 1.435 million.

Our unemployment rate today stands at 36.1%.

Over 66% of those unemployed are young people.

They grew up under the great promise of a better life for all. But, today, they only see a better life for some.

Honourable Members, 

Today, each and every one of us is faced with a vote of conscience.

We can choose to keep a man in office who steals from the poor.

We can choose to keep a man in office who breaks our Constitution to protect himself and his friends.

We can choose to keep a man in office who laughs when Parliament is broken down.

Or we can choose to vote with our conscience. We can choose to vote with our hearts.

I know that the Honourable Members on this side of the House will be unable to do that today.

But, if you are unable to vote with your hearts, perhaps consider voting with your heads. For your own sake.

Because you know as well as I do that the longer you keep this man in office, the more you show South Africans how the ANC of today has lost its way.

Under the leadership of Jacob Zuma your party has dropped over 210,000 votes country-wide since 2009.

In Gauteng last year, you dropped nearly 10 percentage points, taking you to the brink of losing a provincial majority.

In Nelson Mandela Bay, the heartland of the ANC, your party has dropped from over 70% support in 2004, to less than 50% last year.

For the first time, at next year's elections, the ANC could lose strategic metros in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape.

That is the beauty of democracy. Every election is a vote of no confidence. 

And every election we hold shows that people are losing confidence in the man you insist on propping up as President.

So, by all means, vote against this motion of no confidence today. Vote against your hearts. And vote against your heads.

But know that when your children inherit an economy that is unable to provide them with jobs to support their families, they will look back and ask how you let that happen.

Know that when the pillars of our democracy lie in ruins, they will judge you harshly for doing nothing to stop the devastation.

And know that the day is coming when the people of this country will vote you out of power.

They will choose a party that works to strengthen the Constitution.

They will choose a party that fights corruption.

They will choose a party that fights for jobs and opportunity.

They will choose a party that puts power back in the hands of the people.

I thank you.

Issued by the DA, March 17 2015

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