All eyes on embattled National Assembly Speaker

Following last week’s extraordinary Constitutional Court ruling which cleared the way for National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete to allow the use of a secret ballot during the motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma, the nation is on edge as she juggles a political hot potato. Legalbrief reports that the twist in the tale is that Mbete is on record as saying that she has not objection to a secret ballot, but did not have the power to call for one. Not so, noted Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng who added that ‘there must always be proper and rational basis for whatever choice the speaker makes in the exercise of the constitutional power to determine the voting procedure’. The United Democratic Movement (UDM), which brought the application, is warning that it will take the matter on judicial review if the Speaker rejects a secret vote. According to an SABC News report, Bantu Holomisa noted that when Zuma answered questions in the House last week he made it clear he was against MPs voting via secret ballot. Zuma told MPs ‘we should do what we have done all the time in the past times because I see no convincing reason why we should change voting’. The UDM believes the Speaker will do as Zuma orders.

Full SABC News report

Full report on the EWN site