The main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) says it will formally submit a motion of no confidence against beleaguered South Africa’s National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula who is facing bribery allegations.
Mapisa-Nqakula took “special leave” from her role as Speaker on Thursday, two days after investigators from the National Prosecuting Authority raided her house in Johannesburg as part of an investigation into allegations that she took millions of Rands from a former military contractor during her time as South Africa’s defence minister.
In a statement on Friday, DA said it would write to “all political parties represented in parliament to support our motion for the removal if the Speaker.”
“The announcement that she has taken ‘special leave’, not resigned, has left us with no choice but to submit a formal motion of no confidence to be debated and voted on before the House rises and the expiration of this term,” the party said.
It noted that parliamentary rules “do not make provision for ‘special leave’ taken by a member by a unilateral decision.”
“A special leave is only granted by a full sitting of the House; through a formal motion that is adopted in terms of rule 36(2) of the National Assembly rules.”
Mapisa-Nqakula, who served as South Africa’s defence minister between 2012 and 2021, has, meanwhile, lodged a court application seeking to interdict law enforcement authorities from arresting her.
In court papers filed at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Friday, the Speaker said there was no case against her and demanded to be presented with the docket laying out the charges she was facing.
“I am a senior person and the respondents rushing me into a police cell for reasons other than that I am a flight risk, is a threat to my health and life,” she said in the court papers.
The Speaker also wants the court to order law enforcement officials “to arrange a date” with her lawyers on which she would be summoned to appear in court.
There was no official confirmation of earlier reports by the state-run South African Broadcasting Corporation and privately owned eNCA and NewzRoom Africa that the Speaker had handed herself to the police in Pretoria.
JN/APA