SONA debate: DA tables motion of no confidence against Cabinet
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen wants a shake up of the national executive.
"Here's what is going to happen Mr President; because you have shown that you are a president of talk and not a president of action, we are going to make it easier for you. Today I have tabled a motion of no confidence, not in you, but in your whole Cabinet, in terms of section 102 (1) of the Constitution."
He made the announcement on Monday afternoon during the debate of the State of the Nation Address in Cape Town.
Steenhuisen has questioned President Cyril Ramaphosa's decision to keep some of the ministers on.
He's singled out minister Bheki Cele for the police's response to the July unrest, Public Works Minister Patricia de Lille in light of the Parliament fire and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, who he says is stuck on fossil fuels.
READ: MPs to debate Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address
Steenhuisen said if it's not possible for the president to do right by the country, the DA will take the burden off his hands.
"We cannot sit through another year of your talk, while our country slides further and further backwards and millions more of our citizens fall into poverty and unemployment.
"So Mr President, you can either stand back and watch us take over your duties one by one or you can let us help you break the paralysis of you presidency by pushing through your own reforms in this house."
Meanwhile, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema says sending jobseekers to the private sector is like sending cattle to the slaughter.
It's in response to comments by President Cyril Ramaphosa last week that the jobs the country needs to create lie in the private sector.
"What we know about the private capitalist sector is that it's purpose has never been and will never be about creation of jobs. The purpose of the capitalist industries is to exist is not for jobs purposes. The purpose and sole purpose of capitalism and the private sector is to make profit.
That is why private companies always adopt new technologies that seek to replace workers with machines, that is why the private companies always force government to weaken labour protection laws because they want to super exploit workers."
During the State of the Nation Address debate on Monday afternoon, Malema dismissed the president's comments that government doesn't create jobs.
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