DA to table motion to dissolve parliament, calls for early elections

DA leader Mmusi Maimane told a media briefing the motion would be tabled on Thursday, two days after the opposition won significant support from ANC MPs for a motion of no confidence in embattled President Jacob Zuma, but not enough for it to be passed by the National Assembly.

“Yesterday, Jacob Zuma survived yet again, protected by the party that elected him twice and shielded him from accountability countless times. South Africa now needs a new beginning,” Maimane said.

“We believe the voters should now have the chance to express their opinion about the conduct of the ANC in defending Jacob Zuma. In short, we believe that Parliament should be dissolved now so that the country can hold an early election.”

Maimane added that South Africa’s current problems, including an economic recession and the extent of corruption allegations against Zuma, ministers and key institutions, constituted extraordinary circumstances that justified early elections.

He said the opposition would again lobby ANC MPs to vote according to conscience, as it had for months ahead of Tuesday’s debate on the no confidence motion. The outcome of the vote was 177 in favour of the motion and 198 against, with nine abstentions.

It means that at least 26 ruling party MPs, but probably closer to 30, defied their chief whip’s instructions and voted with the opposition.

However, in the debate on that motion both Maimane and Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema took care not to alienate sympathetic ANC MPs, and portrayed the motion as a bid to rid the country of a weak and corrupt president, not to overthrow the party that has been in power since the end of apartheid.

Maimane shrugged off concerns that this time the motion would read as a direct attack on the ANC itself and fail to attract rebel votes from within the ruling party.

“We are sure that the ANC has lost the confidence of the majority of South Africans. We say, bring it on! Let’s fight an election for the future of our country, and let’s do it now. By the time Jacob Zuma has destroyed the ANC completely, and the country, it will be too late. Let’s let the country choose a new beginning, now.”

He said he expected fellow opposition parties to support it, noting that the EFF had already called for precipitated elections.

DA chief whip John Steenhuisen pointed out that the constitution made provision for early national elections, provided three years had passed since the last ballot. Zuma won a second term as president in national elections in May 2014.

The motion would need a simple majority in the National Assembly to succeed.

Maimane said the opposition would lobby ruling party MPs to support its latest motion, just as it had sought their support for the vote of no confidence.

Asked what he believed the chances were of Speaker Baleka Mbete allowing the vote to take place by secret ballot again, he said he did not see this as crucial.

“It can be an open ballot.”

Steenhuisen said the opposition believed that it was critical to keep up the pressure on the Zuma administration after the wound inflicted on it on Wednesday and most opposition parties would see their support increase if the country went to the polls before 2019, when the next national election is due.

“There is blood in the water now.”