By Samantha Lee
CAPE TOWN Nov 8 (Reuters) – South African opposition
parties pushed on Thursday for a no-confidence vote against
President Jacob Zuma for alleged corruption and economic
bungling, a symbolic move that could nevertheless embarrass him
as he seeks re-election as head of the ruling ANC.
The request has to get the green light from speaker Max
Sisulu, an African National Congress stalwart (ANC), although
the Democratic Alliance (DA) said there was no precedent for
parliament not to hear a proposed no-confidence debate.
The opposition made a similar push in 2010 after a scandal
about Zuma’s sex life, although the ANC tweaked the motion into
a “confidence vote” which Zuma survived comfortably.
“It is an important motion and it would frankly be a
dereliction of parliament not to table it and debate it at the
earliest opportunity,” Lindiwe Mazibuko, parliamentary leader of
the DA, the main opposition party, told a news conference.
The opposition said that under his leadership the justice
system has been politicised and corruption has escalated while
chronic unemployment and a broken education system were posing
long-term risks.
The ANC, which has ruled since the end of apartheid in 1994,
has countered by saying it has made enormous strides in reducing
poverty and is working to improve accountability in government.
Even if it goes ahead, Zuma’s position is secure since the
ANC controls 66 percent of the seats in parliament and dissent
is almost unheard of.
However, in the past three months his administration has
been rocked by the most damaging labour strikes since the end of
apartheid and the police killing of 34 strikers at Lonmin’s
Marikana platinum mine on Aug. 16.
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