zuma

Home » Impeachment Day: ANC Backs Zuma, Trevor Manuel Doesn’t

Impeachment Day: ANC Backs Zuma, Trevor Manuel Doesn’t

In a day of mounting criticism of President Jacob Zuma, a heated and long debate in Parliament, and unusual partnerships to get him removed from power, the opposition parties saw a motion to impeach Zuma fail against an ANC majority. At the same time, respected former finance minister Trevor Manuel said it would be in the interests of the […]

By SAPeople Staff Writer
06-04-16 07:26
in News
zuma

In a day of mounting criticism of President Jacob Zuma, a heated and long debate in Parliament, and unusual partnerships to get him removed from power, the opposition parties saw a motion to impeach Zuma fail against an ANC majority. At the same time, respected former finance minister Trevor Manuel said it would be in the interests of the country if Zuma stepped down.

Manuel is the latest high-ranking ANC member to come out against Zuma, while others in the ANC have implicated the Gupta family, friends of Zuma’s, in meddling in government affairs.

While the impeachment motion was lost 143-233, Democratic Alliance chief whip John Steenhuisen said the opposition might have lost the vote, but they won the argument.

Watch Manuel’s statement here:

In other rare sights, members of the opposition parties stood together outside Parliament after losing the impeachment motion, with DA leader Mmusi Maimane saying the battle against Zuma was far from over.

Watch Maimane, Julius Malema, Mosiua Lekota and other leaders here:

The opposition parties had stood together during the impeachment motion, and started off the debate with a unanimous call for the speaker, Baleke Mbete, a known Zuma ally, to recuse herself for the debate because she could not adjudicate the matter fairly or impartially.

After almost 30 minutes of shouting across the floor, Mabete asked the party whips to meet her for 10 minutes to discuss the matter. The 10 minutes grew to 60, generating the hashtag #10ParliamentMinutes (and #10ParlimentMinutes for the bad spellers).

The DA’s Steenhuisen telling Mbete why she could not preside over the impeachment debate:

When she returned, Mbete of course kept acting as speaker, but then soon afterwards stepped down hardly noticed and was replaced by the more liked deputy speaker, Solomon Lechesa Tsenoli.

Some of the barrage of tweets today under #10ParliamentMinutes, #ZumaImpeachment and #ImpeachZuma