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| Mmusi Maimane |
"You will vote to keep a man in office who is doing everything possible to evade 783 counts of fraud, corruption, and racketeering.
You will vote for a thief," he told MPs, moving a motion of no confidence in the president in the National Assembly.
He had earlier warned that the majority of MPs set to vote on the motion would vote against their consciences.
Maimane told the House that Zuma had stolen taxpayers' money to build his homestead in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.
Maimane said he could call Zuma a thief "because the Constitutional Court says I can".But Speaker Baleka Mbete called on him to withdraw the label, after an objection from African National Congress Chief Whip Stone Sizani.
"It is unparliamentary," she told Maimane.On a point of order, DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen warned that the House was subordinate to the rulings and findings of the Constitutional Court.
Earlier, Mbete had told MPs: "This House is run by its own rules... We are not run by another arm."After numerous points of order on the matter, Maimane withdrew his description of Zuma as a liar, and returned to his earlier call on MPs to exercise their consciences when they voted.
"We can choose to keep a man in office who steals from the poor. We can choose to keep a man in office who breaks our Constitution to protect himself and his friends.
We can choose to keep a man in office who laughs when Parliament is broken down."Or we can choose to vote with our conscience.
We can choose to vote with our hearts. "The motion was brought by Maimane.It is the second no-confidence motion brought against Zuma this year. The first was brought by AgangSA last month, but was suddenly and controversially withdrawn by the party's Andries Tlomma minutes after he started speaking in the House.
SAPA
