Why opposition’s call for early elections could be disastrous for SA

For the opposition parties to try to capitalise on the current political crisis besetting the ruling ANC and the country is not a solution, but a mere political game, says a political analyst.

By calling for the dissolution of parliament and subsequent holding of early elections the parties were trying to up the ante to put pressure on the ruling party to act to oust President Jacob Zuma.

“Yes, they will try to capitalise on the current government crisis to put more pressure on the ANC to act because right now we are in limbo regarding the presidency,” said Andre Duvenhage, a political scientist from the North West University.

“But I suspect that their call for parliament to be dissolved is a wrong strategy that will not work.”

Additional pressure is not going to give the ANC room to deal with the matter.

This is not the time to dissolve parliament. It has a mandate to do its job until the next election in 2019.

The right thing to do is to leave the ANC to deal with the issue of Zuma. Nobody is ready for elections at this point,” Duvenhage said. The ANC national executive committee spent yesterday afternoon and evening discussing the next trick to finally remove Zuma.

But the opposition parties used the day to hatch a new strategy: call for early elections.

The parties, in a joint press briefing in Cape Town yesterday, called for parliament to be dissolved to give South African voters a chance to decide about who they want to lead the country.

While all the parties agreed that the ruling ANC has no power to recall Zuma in terms of the country’s constitution, they said the dissolution of parliament and holding of fresh elections would help break the impasse.

According to DA leader Mmusi Maimane, early elections would give voters an opportunity to choose who they want to govern South Africa.

“Anyone from the ANC that wants to lead this country, must get their mandate from the people of South Africa,” he said.

Fiery EFF leader Julius Malema was confident that the ANC was going to remove Zuma and provision must be made for when he is gone.

He said it would be proper to dissolve parliament because it had failed to hold Zuma accountable for undermining the country’s supreme law and breaching his oath of office.

He cited the recent Constitutional Court ruling which found that both the president and parliament had failed to protect the constitution on the Nkandla findings by former public protector Thuli Madonsela.

Malema said the ANC NEC meeting in Irene in Pretoria East yesterday was not exciting to the opposition because the ANC’s plan to remove Zuma was not a sincere decision but a factional move aimed at removing one corrupt fellow and replacing him with another corrupt fellow.

“The problem is not Cyril, the problem is not Zuma, the problem is the ANC. They must be voted out, people must be given opportunity to vote again.”

Malema said they rejected that two elite ANC factions should nominate a successor to Zuma.

Instead the voters must decide on the next president. “To think In a surprise move late yesterday afternoon, National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete said she had not rejected a request from the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Julius Malema, to reschedule the party’s motion of no confidence in the president to today.

Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Lechesa Tsenoli, issued a statement on behalf of Mbete.

He said: “In the letter to Mr Malema and the attorneys of the EFF, Ms Mbete said she was currently consulting on the request to reschedule the motion and would revert after this.

The rules of the National Assembly entailed consultation with relevant structures, including the chief whip of the majority party and the leader of government business.”

The speaker had originally scheduled the motion for February 22.

This was after consulting with the chief whip and the leader of government business and obtaining confirmation for the February 22 scheduling from the National Assembly programme committee.

“In her letter today, Ms Mbete said she was currently consulting on the request and would revert to Mr Malema.”

Tsenoli added: “Reports that the speaker had rejected the EFF’s request to schedule the motion of no confidence on February 13 [today] are, therefore, false.” – Citizen reporter Speaker is ‘consulting’ over Juju’s no-confidence request when Zuma leaves our problems will disappear, is being disingenuous.” Maimane accused Zuma of holding the country to ransom.

“Refusing to leave shows how powerful he still is.” No news emerged from the NEC gathering by the time of going to print.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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