President Cyril Ramaphosa’s chances of being re-elected for a second term as the leader of the ANC received a major boost in the run-up to the organisation’s elective conference starting on Friday.
This comes after an overwhelming majority of ANC members of Parliament (MPs) voted against the adoption of a Section 89 independent panel of experts’ report that found Ramaphosa may have violated the constitution in his handling of the theft of foreign currency at his Phala Phala farm in February 2020.
Cope MP Willie Madisha voted with ANC MPs who overwhelmingly rejected the adoption of the report. Out of 400 National Assembly MPs, 214 voted against the report and 148 said the report must be adopted.
Five ANC MPs defied the party line and voted with the opposition for the adoption.
Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola led the charge in defending Ramaphosa, saying the report has flaws, while EFF deputy president Floyd Shivhambu threatened that his party would take the decision to deny the secret vote to court.
“We are going to take you to court, and you are not going to win this,” Shivambu told National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
Earlier, presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma led a group of dissident ANC MPs who voted for the National Assembly to adopt a Section 89 independent panel of experts report that found that President Cyril Ramaphosa may have violated the constitution in his handling of the theft of foreign currency at his Phala Phala farm.
Former North West premier Supra Mahumapelo, former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane and former ANC Youth league coordinator Thandi Mahambehlala were among the few ANC MPs that voted with the opposition and defied a decision of the ruling party’s national executive committee to vote against the adoption of the report.
Other presidential hopefuls Lindiwe Sisulu and Zweli Mkhize abstained from voting. Former state security minister Bongani Bongo also abstained from voting.
Former Eastern Cape premier Phumulo Masualle, who has been critical of Ramaphosa, calling for his ouster, surprisingly voted for the party line not to adopt the report.
Dlamini Zuma said: “As a disciplined member of the ANC I vote yes”.
Dlamini Zuma’s vote comes in the wake of a stern warning that the ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe issued against members who were planning to vote with the opposition.
Mantashe told Sunday World last week that ANC MPs who vote with the opposition on the Phala Phala matter would be expelled.
He said those who vote against the party line should leave and become independent candidates.
“Ask Makhosi Khoza what happens when you defy the ANC. She had to leave. If you defy the ANC you will have to leave because it means you don’t have respect for the organisation, you are an individual. Conscience is ok, but we are having political system. Every MP there at Parliament is a member of a political party. Why is this conscience applying to the ANC only?
“People who want to be independents and don’t want party discipline must go and contest as independents,” Mantashe said.
The voting on the Phala Phala matter came two days before the start of the ANC elective conference, during which its was expected that the matter will be at the centre of some of the discussions.
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