No-confidence vote against South Africa’s Cabinet fails

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG (AA) - South Africa’s Cabinet Wednesday comfortably survived an attempt by the opposition to have them removed from office in a vote of no-confidence.

The no-confidence motion, brought by the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), was defeated by a vote in parliament of 231-131 with one abstention.

This was the first no-confidence vote against the Cabinet led by 69-year-old President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has been in office since 2019.

The vote was held in public through a roll call system where a member was called out and they would respond if they supported the motion or not.

Ramaphosa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has 230 seats in the 400-seat National Assembly and for a motion of no confidence to pass, only a simple majority is needed.

The Democratic Alliance argued that the ANC government had the opportunity to grow the economy by easing doing business and fostering local and foreign investment, but instead allowed infrastructure to degenerate and poverty to flourish.

The ANC rejected the claims, saying it is working hard to reverse the legacy of apartheid by introducing policies to favor disadvantaged communities, improve the ease of doing business and offering housing, among other things, but added that these programs will take time to fully reverse the brutal legacy of decades of apartheid.

Dirk Kotze, a political scientist at the University of South Africa, said despite the ANC’s majority, the opposition was motivated to move the motion and create an opportunity for debate and assess the performance of the government.