EDITORIAL: Zuma’s next confidence test could be different
The old weapon used by party bosses in the past — vote against the motion or lose your seat in Parliament — might not work as well as it once did
Parliamentary motions of no confidence in the president, while being full of sound and fury, have been largely predictable affairs in the past 23 years, with the governing ANC using its huge majorities over the years to carry the day against the opposition. Of course, in the honeymoon days of the Nelson Mandela presidency, no such motions were found to be necessary. His successor, Thabo Mbeki, faced a handful of no-confidence motions, most notably on the energy crisis and rolling blackouts, which started on his watch. His HIV/AIDS denialism was also the subject of debate. It has been very different for the Jacob Zuma presidency, with no-confidence motions coming thick and fast. These motions resulted from the swathe of scandals that have surrounded Zuma, not the least of them Nkandla, the firing of Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister and the president’s relationship with the Gupta family. In all the eight motions of no confidence that have gone before, the parliamentary caucus of the ...
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