PARLIAMENT
TONY LEON: Zombie Zuma’s survival could be explained by basic political calculus
President’s enemies in the ANC probably decided not to hand opposition parties the gift of an indebted leader
Like pupils at a Montessori School, all the dramatis personae in last week’s long-running parliamentary no-confidence saga — the eighth such motion to date in an eight-year presidency — against Jacob Zuma could award themselves a gold star. And they duly did so. Acting from a known Constitutional Court judgment and unknown political calculations, Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete surprised both her supporters and detractors, as well as the weight of conventional wisdom, by allowing a secret ballot on the motion. Emboldened by their anonymity, and presumably unburdened by fear of reprisal or expulsion, anywhere between 30 and 40 ANC MPs broke ranks to vote against their president and the party whip or washed their hands of both sides and abstained. Barely had the vote count been announced than all sides claimed victory. And here the runes had, for once, a fairly obvious meaning, or several of them: for the Zuma camp, they retained the backing of 80% of ANC members in the face of unp...
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