Next week Tuesday is the vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma.
The ConCourt left it to National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete to decide whether the vote must be held in secret or not.
There’s been interesting rhetoric on both sides, with the ANC saying their MPs will vote according to the party’s instructions whether the ballot is secret or not.
However the opposition says many ANC MPs will vote against Zuma, if they are allowed to do so secretly.
Julius Malema says he knows of at least 60 ANC MPs who will vote against JZ.
As voters, we need to ask a few very serious questions ahead of next week.
The one is, how Zuma is still able to instil so much fear in his party’s MPs and why? Why will they only vote according to their consciences in secret?
Voters also need to ask what it is they can do to help sway their representatives.
The fact is, we can do something very simple and that is to petition.
If large numbers of people write to their representatives expressing similar views, they will have no choice but to listen.
While the ANC insists its MPs vote according to the party line, those MPs represent our views, not their party’s.
They sit in parly because of us and therefore have to listen to what we have to say.
Whichever side of the Zuma fence you are on, write your views down in a letter and send it off to your representative.
If, however, Mbete surprises us all on Tuesday and allows a secret vote, then we will all probably wake up to a new president next Wednesday morning. And maybe you will have had something to do with that!