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The Constitutional Court has dismissed an application by the DA to compel Parliament to debate a vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma.
"The appeal is dismissed," Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke said.
It said according to Parliament's rules, Speaker Max Sisulu did not hold the power to schedule a motion of no confidence in Zuma.
The court also ordered that National Assembly (NA) "correct the defect" in its rules so that members of the Assembly or political parties could debate a motion of no confidence. Parliament was given six months to do this.
Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko tabled the motion of no confidence in Parliament in November, and was supported by seven other opposition parties.
Sisulu later adjourned a meeting without the debate being scheduled, on the basis that no consensus had been reached.
The DA took the matter to the Western Cape High Court where it was dismissed by Judge Dennis Davis.
Davis ruled that it was any MP's right to request a no confidence debate, and that such requests were "by their very nature" urgent.
But, because the rules of the NA did not make provision for no confidence debates, Davis could not tell Sisulu when and where the debate should be heard. The high court held that Parliament had the obligation to give effect to the right to debate and vote on a
motion of no confidence, but that only the Constitutional Court could hear this matter.
Mazibuko argued in the Constitutional Court that the high court erred in finding that the Speaker did not have the power to schedule the motion.
She submitted that the NA rules were inconsistent with the Constitution.
