Gayton Mckenzie Sends Vote Of No Confidence Warning To Cyril Ramaphosa

Patriotic Alliance PA leader Gayton McKenzie says booting the Democratic Alliance DA out of the government of national unity GNU would expose President Cyril Ramaphosa to a higher risk of a vote of no confidence in Parliament.

McKenzie sounded the warning in an opinion piece published on BusinessLIVE on Tuesday.

The DA and Freedom Front Plus FF voted against the budgets fiscal framework in Parliament last week. The two parties have a combined 93 seats in Parliament.

This sparked calls, including from McKenzie, for the DA and FF to leave the GNU. However, he has now had a change of heart.

93 MPs would instantly no longer be part of the GNU. That would allow President Cyril Ramaphosa to bring in ActionSA and Build One SA, parties that saved the government by voting in favour of the budget, he wrote in his opinion piece.

The president might want to throw the dice and see if he can avoid losing a motion of no confidence. But he would stand a good chance of becoming the first democratic president to suffer such an indignity, and once voted out there would be no coming back.

You can't leave the fate of your government to chance, and numbers don't care how angry you are. Anything can happen on the day of a motion of no confidence.

A handful of MPs not being in the National Assembly could shift the outcome, and no-one wants to run a country knowing they have to rely on luck to remain president.

Previously, the African National Congress ANC relied on its majority to vote against motions of no confidence. However, it lost its majority in last years elections.

The ANCs National Working Committee NWC has not made a firm decision on forcing the DA out of the GNU. However, it decided to reconfigure the coalition.