Secret ballot will maintain integrity of ‘no confidence vote’, UDM tells ConCourt
15 May 2017
Johannesburg - Allowing for a secret ballot to be held during the motion of no confidence vote in Parliament will allow members of the house to feel safe enough to vote with integrity, the UDM has argued.
Speaking on behalf of the United Democratic Movement at the Constitutional Court on Monday, Dali Mpofu said all South Africans wanted was to know that the members of Parliament who had been elected to represent them, were voting with integrity and that a secret vote would ensure that.
"We are giving reasons of why it must be there, but no-one has told us what is wrong with it. The real thing that all South Africans want to know is that does the President continue to enjoy the confidence of members of Parliament. That is all. It's a very simple antidote that we are waving to the court."
Mpofu argued that National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete had failed to hold the executive to power after receiving a request to table the motion of confidence in a letter addressed to her in April, as she was obligated to do.