SPEAKER DECLINES REQUEST FOR SECRET BALLOT ON PANEL REPORT DEBATE

12 December 2022

Parliament, Monday 12 December 2022 – National Assembly (NA) Speaker Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has declined requests to reconsider her decision to not allow the secret ballot to be used as a voting procedure on the Section 89 Independent Panel’s report.

Leaders of the African Transformation Movement (ATM), the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), the African Independent Congress (AIC) and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) wrote to the Speaker requesting her to reconsider her decision, on 05 December, to decline allowing voting for the adoption of the Section 89 independent panel report through a secret ballot.

The African National Congress (ANC), on the other hand, wrote to the Speaker requesting that she affirms her earlier decision.

The Speaker, using her powers as enjoined by the NA Rules, has a right to exercise her discretion in determining the voting method to be employed when deciding on questions before the House - where no voting method is prescribed in the Rules of the National Assembly.

In her reply, the Speaker said she had a constitutional responsibility to consider all prevailing factors in exercising her discretion to determine the appropriate voting mechanism. She stressed the importance of ensuring due regard to an environment of accountability and at the same time maintaining transparency and openness.

The Speaker said the parliamentary environment is always a highly politicised space and can never be entirely free of political tensions, either between or even within parties. She said that she does not believe that the atmosphere is so generally toxified or so highly charged that Members of the National Assembly would be prevented from exercising their vote on this question in accordance with their conscience using an open voting procedure.

The Speaker has also noted concerns about potential “vote buying”, and it was her view that this could be facilitated by a cloud of secrecy.

She told the party leaders that her position on this matter therefore stands and accordingly, she would not accede to their request for the use of a secret ballot voting procedure when the Assembly considers the Section 89 Independent Panel Report.

Statement issued by Parliament, 12 December 2022