Speaker Mbete refuses to recuse herself from impeachment debate
Speaker Baleka Mbete on Tuesday rejected demands that she recuse herself from the debate on a Democratic Alliance (DA) motion to impeach President Jacob Zuma.
“We are not continuing the debate on the recusal of the speaker,” Mbete said after the debate in the National Assembly was delayed for two hours by argument and deliberations over whether it was fitting for her to be in the chair, given last week’s damning Constitutional Court judgment against Zuma and the chamber.
The court found that both the president and the assembly had flouted the Constitution by failing to implement Public Protector Thuli Madonsela report on misspending of state funds on his Nkandla home.
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Economic Freedom Front leader Julius Malema responded by warning Mbete that his party would take her to court because there was a conflict of interest in her chairing the sitting.
“Your continuing of presiding over this sitting constitutes a conflict of interest. It is the basis on which we will take you to court… You are going to lose and you are going to lose with costs,” he said.
Malema added that even if, as ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu told MPs, there was no law that forced Mbete to recuse herself, she should have done so because all opposition parties had implored her.
“So in summary, you shall receive court papers,” he said.
Mthembu said Mbete had personally informed opposition MPs of her decision, after consultations in which the ANC argued that it would set a “terrible precedent” if she were to bow to their demands in this regard without due cause.