Former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki has urged the Members of parliament in that country to vote on national issues according to their conscience and in the interest of those who voted them into parliament.
He is warning the MPs against voting according to party lines as the South African parliament prepares to vote on a motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma.
He wrote in an article published by some local media in South Africa including The Sun newspaper “It is therefore obvious and logical that Members of Parliament (MPs), each elected to this position by the people as a whole, and never by individual political parties, including their own, must act in Parliament as the voice of the people, not the voice of the political parties to which they might belong”.
Mr. Zuma is facing series of agitations and protests all calling on him to step down. A vote of no confidence motion will be debated in Parliament on Tuesday, April 18. While the opposition political parties are planning on voting for the motion, MPs from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) have vowed to vote against the motion.
Similar motions have failed to pass because the ANC MPs have voted against it.
“This poses the question all Parliamentary parties must answer – is this what the electorate expects of its elected representatives?” Mbeki asked.
Mbeki also said that Constitutional Court, in a March 31, 2016 judgment defined the role of MPs, saying “It (Judgement) stated, correctly, that our MPs serve in Parliament as representatives of the people. They do not serve in Parliament as representatives of political parties, even as they are members of these parties.”
The former president reminded the MPs that because they were elected by the people of South Africa, they are therefore accountable to those electorate.
Source: Africafeeds.com
