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 and former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane were among a 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 removal, surprisingly voted for the party 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 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,” Mantashe said.
“Conscience is okay, but we are having a 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.”
The voting on the Phala Phala matter came two days before the start of the ANC elective conference at the Nasrec Expo Centre, during which it is expected that the matter will be at the centre of some of the discussions.
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