President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to face a motion of no confidence.
The National Assembly will debate the motion next Thursday. It is the first time that MPs will debate the President’s fitness for office.
The African Transformation Movement (ATM), which entered Parliament for the first time in 2019 with two seats, brought the motion. The party also holds a single seat in each of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislatures.
There had been rumours that ANC secretary-general, Ace Magashule, had been behind the formation of the party – however he was cleared by an internal party probe in September.
ATM leader, Vuyolwethu Zungula was quoted as saying: ‘We thought as social democrats we should respect the will of the majority. But the sixth administration has turned out to be the most advised administration since the dawn of democracy, with a number of advisory bodies and various envoys whose advice, it seemed, was falling on deaf ears or was being poorly implemented. It is safe to say this country has a parallel cabinet but still no positive outcome. SA allowed President Ramaphosa a free hand to do things the new dawn way but the country keeps sliding.’
IRR analysts said that the motion by the ATM could be a shot across the bows by the ‘state capture’ faction of the ANC, who could be using the ATM as a proxy in its factional battle against President Ramaphosa.