President Zuma survives no confidence vote but 26 ANC MPs defy party line

President Zuma has survived yet another attempt by the opposition to remove him as head of state.

Members of Parliament (MP) were allowed to vote by way of a secret ballot following a heated debate.

A total of 384 votes were cast.

A total of 177 MPs voted in favour of the motion, with 198 MPs voting for the president to remain in his position.

The result confirmed growing dissent in the ranks of the ANC as at least 26 ruling party MPs defied a three-line whip to vote in favour of it.

Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema said it was cause to celebrate and showed that the opposition’s battle to secure a secret ballot for the measure was not a waste of time because it had emboldened African National Congress MPs to vote according to conscience.

“We got 26 votes from the ANC direct and 35 indirect because there were nine abstentions … We thank them for their courage. When we said to you we are eating an elephant bit-by-bit, we were not joking,” he said, adding that the opposition would persist with its attempts to oust Zuma from office even after Tuesday’s eighth failed attempt.

Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane said the ANC had scored a pyrrhic victory and would rue the missed opportunity when South Africans went back to the polls in 2019. But he added that there was hope in the numbers who voted with the opposition.

“It shows to South Africa that there are ANC members who want to see change take place with democracy. It says to the people that Jacob Zuma does not have the mandate of the people…

After the result was announced, a tired-looking Zuma went to thank supporters who had protested loudly in his support throughout the debate.

“The outcome had proven that the ANC was the only movement who held the overwhelming support of South Africans,” Zuma said.

“Those comrades who were in parliament needed the support of the members who supported them. You came in a number to show that the ANC is there, it is big, it is powerful, it is difficult to tame the ANC.”

ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu, who did not speak in the debate, said he had known that the motion would fail. Mthembu had sought to pull dissenting MPs into line ahead of the vote, warning that it would be disastrous to force Zuma and his cabinet out of office as in effect government would collapse.

But ANC MPs had said the real problem was that the party would then have 30 days to elect a new president and, given the bitter infighting about who should succeed Zuma after his second term, it was simply not ready to make such a decision.