Opposition Parties Want Parliament Dissolved

"It is the view of the collective that the ANC has been complicit in violating the constitution, in defending criminality."
Voting stations set up during the motion of no confidence against president Jacob Zuma in parliament last year.
Voting stations set up during the motion of no confidence against president Jacob Zuma in parliament last year.
POOL New / Reuters

Opposition parties have called for the dissolving of the entire national assembly after President Jacob Zuma is removed.

In a joint statement, made after leaders of opposition parties met on Monday, DA boss Mmusi Maimane said that the group - which consists of the EFF, DA, The Congress of the People (COPE), United Democratic Movement (UDM) and other smaller parties - will not fight in the factional battles of the ANC.

"We must proceed to the dissolution of parliament. We say that on the basis of saying that it cannot be that we enter factional battles and seek to propose that we must support Cyril Ramaphosa or anybody from the ANC," Maimane said.

"It is the view of the collective that the ANC has been complicit in violating the constitution, in defending criminality...We want to resort to Section 50 of the constitution which calls for the dissolution of parliament."

Maimane said anybody who wants to lead the ANC, parliament, and South Africa must be handed the mandate to do so from the citizens of the country.

"Subsequent to that we will then move on to an early election," he said.

The announcement comes as ANC national executive committee members meet in Irene to discuss Zuma's fate.

EFF leader Julius Malema said a motion of no confidence against Zuma must take place this week.

"By 10am tomorrow (Tuesday) if [national assembly speaker Baleka Mbete] has not responded, the EFF is going to launch an urgent application in court because we are in a crisis," he said.

Malema was referring to a request by the EFF last week for Mbete to bring forward the scheduled date of the motion of no confidence from February 22 to February 13.

"We will also dissolve ourselves. Once we remove Zuma, parliament must be dissolved because the constitutional court made a ruling that parliament failed to discharge its responsibility when it couldn't protect the public protector, including holding the president accountable," Malema said.

Close

What's Hot