DA submits motion to dissolve National Assembly, set date for early elections

The party wants national elections, currently set to be held in 2024, to be held a year next year.

The DA's call comes after an independent parliamentary panel on the 2020 Phala Phala robbery found that President Cyril Ramaphosa may have committed serious violations of the constitution and anti-corruption laws.

DA leader John Steenhuisen has called on South Africa’s 400 MPs to support the motion for early elections.

"The ANC has effectively lost its 2019 mandate to govern, which was granted on the back of Ramaphosa’s promise to clean up the state and reform the economy. Instead, he himself is entangled in a web of personal wrongdoing, while South Africa battles an electricity crisis, a cost of living crisis, a joblessness crisis, and a service delivery crisis – all of which are set to get a lot worse in the coming months and years unless there is a step change in government.

“South Africa’s future should not be decided now by 4000 bribed and bought ANC congress delegates, but by all the voters of this country. Parliament’s role is precisely to step up at times such as this, and hand power back to the people. It can only do this by dissolving the National Assembly so that the president can call an early election.”

Steenhuisen says the Section 89 independent panel report has left President Ramaphosa deeply compromised, regardless of the outcome of the possible review.

“The Presidency has claimed that Ramaphosa is guided only by a consideration of what is in South Africa’s best interest. There can be no doubt that an early election is in the country’s best interest. It is the only way out of the terrible mess we’re in.”

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