South Africa Jacob Zuma survives no-confidence vote

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has survived his latest vote of no confidence – despite the ballot being held in secret.

Opposition parties had hoped the secret ballot would mean some MPs from the governing ANC party might side with them against the president.

But the motion, called amid repeated allegations of corruption, was defeated by 198 votes to 177.

This news was greeted with cheers and singing by ANC MPs.

Speaking afterwards, Mr Zuma said he had come to thank his supporters and “those in parliament who had voted correctly”.

“They believe they could use technicalities in parliament to take over the the majority from the ANC,” he told the assembled crowd.

“It is impossible: they cannot. We represent the majority.”

Mr Zuma has found himself embroiled in a number of scandals since taking office in 2009, including using taxpayer money for upgrades on his private home, and becoming too close to the wealthy Gupta family, who are accused of trying to influence politician decisions.

Both Mr Zuma and the Gupta family deny wrongdoing.

Criticism increased following the sacking of the widely-respected finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, in March.

But the ANC parliamentary party did not address these criticisms in a statement following the vote, which it called a “soft coup”.

The statement also accused the opposition of attempting “to collapse government, deter service delivery and sow seeds of chaos in society to ultimately grab power”.

However, the vote was not a rousing success for the governing party. The result means at least 26 ANC MPs rebelled, while another nine MPs abstained from voting.

In order for the no-confidence motion to pass, at least 50 out of the ANC’s 249 MPs would have had to vote against the president.

Source: BBC