President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday night thanked African National Congress supporters who gathered outside Parliament, as he survived an eighth motion of no confidence in the National Assembly.
“Thank you to all of you, those comrades who were in Parliament needed your support. You came in your numbers to demonstrate that the ANC is there, powerful and difficult to defeat,” he said to loud cheers.
“You could imagine if the ANC was not there, who would be there? Once again we have proved that the ANC is an organisation of the people. No party has ever received such a number of votes.”
Zuma survived a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly, but the result indicated that a significant number of ANC MPs broke ranks to support the opposition motion.
Speaker Baleka Mbete announced that 177 MPs voted in favour of the motion and 198 against it. There were nine abstentions.
“Therefore the vote of no confidence in the president is accordingly negated,” Mbete said.
Mbete had, in an eleventh hour decision, allowed voting by secret ballot, which in all likelihood emboldened ruling party MPs to defy a three-line whip and vote in favour of the motion.
On Tuesday night, Zuma said that the ANC still had the majority and that the ruling party represented the majority in South Africa.
“They believed that they could use technicalities in parliament to overthrow the ANC. We have the majority. We represent the majority,” Zuma said.
“They pump propaganda through the media. We must thank comrades in parliament who worked hard to defend us. Also thank the comrades who mobilised you to come and support. Thank you.”
The crowd chanted: “Zuma, Zuma, Zuma.”
A total of 384 votes were cast by the 400-member chamber.
The result suggests that at least 26 of the ruling party’s 249 members voted with the opposition, who had taken pains to portray their motion as an attempt to dislodge a weak and unpopular president, not an assault on the ruling ANC.
– African News Agency (ANA)
