Why Zuma and Mbete are opposing the ‘secret ballot’ court battle
President Jacob Zuma and speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete have submitted affidavits opposing the UDM’s Constitutional Court application to force a secret ballot vote in the motion of no confidence against the president.
In the separate submissions, both Zuma and Mbete said that the question of the secret ballot was not for the Constitutional Court to decide.
Mbete submitted that she is not personally opposed to a secret vote, but must uphold the rules of the National Assembly, which does not give her the power to order a secret ballot.
She criticised the UDM’s application to the Constitutional Court saying it worked against the country’s separation of powers, and that the party should have approached the Parliamentary Rules Committee.
Zuma’s submission was more direct, saying that UDM itself has admitted that there is no Constitutional mandate for the vote to be made in secret, and so is not competent.
The president also said that claims made by the UDM that MPs were being threatened or intimidated were not supported by any evidence and were unfounded.
The UDM is looking for a court ruling to give Parliament the go-ahead to vote in the motion of confidence against president Zuma in secret. The party is arguing that when a president is elected by Parliament, it is done in secret, so there should be nothing stopping the removal of a president being handled in the same way.
The rules of the National Assembly do not explicitly make provision for the vote to be done through a secret ballot; however, Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos has argued that that Mbete is being disingenuous in saying she doesn’t have the power to order a secret vote.
According to de Vos, the house rules make provision for the Speaker to order a manual vote when the house’s electronic systems are not used. This can be done at the Speaker’s discretion, he said.
The motion of no confidence was initially set to take place on April 18th, but has been put on ice until the court matter has been resolved.
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