Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance said on Monday it was tabling an urgent parliamentary motion to force President Jacob Zuma to withdraw all South African troops from the Central African Republic.
DA defence spokesman David Maynier told a media briefing in Cape Town this should include troops reportedly sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda in operations linked to the CAR mission, which claimed the lives of 13 South African soldiers late last month.
DA leader Helen Zille said the manner in which the troops were deployed and the motivation for the mission needed to be exposed because both pointed to a political scandal.
"The conclusion is inescapable that the South African troops were deployed to defend the faltering and dictatorial Bozize regime."
Zille noted that the government had failed to refute reports that the ANC investment front Chancellor House had business interests in the mineral-rich CAR.
"If that is what is happening, we would have a president who deploys troops to defend political party's business interests.
"That should bring the government down even in our democracy."
The opposition party said it would appeal to Speaker Max Sisulu to recall the legislature during recess to hear the motion no later than next week.
"Given the continued controversy surrounding the deployment, the lack of a clear mandate for our troops to remain in the CAR, the continued risk to the soldiers' safety and rumours that the SANDF is considering a 'revenge' mission into the CAR, we believe the entire SANDF presence should be withdrawn immediately.
"Parliament cannot sit back while this crisis unfolds.
It indicated if that failed it would be ready to go to court to force the government to reveal the mandate of the mission.
Zille said the president appeared to have kept Parliament and the nation in the dark about the nature of the deployment, and if there had been a cover-up, it would be untenable that he remained in power and in command of the armed forces.
Government has maintained that the presence of 400 troops in the CAR was covered by a bilateral defence accord with President Francois Bozize dating back to 2007.
The accord was signed by then president Thabo Mbeki and implemented to deploy military trainers to Bangui. Mbeki and Zuma have both used a provision of the constitution to authorise the deployment without seeking prior parliamentary approval.
But the fatalities have put the presidency and defence ministry under pressure to shed more light on the mission, with critics saying Zuma should not have boosted the deployment by 400 troops in January because it amounted to propping up Bozize in a civil war.
The soldiers were killed last weekend as they fought alongside government troops against rebels and mutinous CAR soldiers trying to oust Bozize, who has since fled the country.
"I think the only reason we found this out is that troops were died and then we started asking questions as to what they were doing in combat and why Parliament had never been informed that they would be in situations of combat," Zille said.
But Maynier said military deployments should have the defence accord, which was reportedly extended to 2018, was "null and void" if the CAR government was no longer in power.
The fatalities came in a nine-hour battle at a base near Bangui and are the worst military setback South Africa has suffered since 1994.
"The defence force found themselves in a situation ... where they did not appear to have adequate intelligence, they did not appear to have any air support or any transport to assist with logistical supply.
"They effectively had one hand tied behind their backs and we can never allow that to happen again."
Zuma is set to attend an extraordinary summit of the 10-nation Economic Community of Central African States in N'Djamena on Wednesday.
Parliament's joint standing committee on defence is set to discuss the CAR deployment on Thursday but the DA said this was unlikely to yield a full explanation. - Sapa
*This article was edited at 2pm on Apil 1, 2013.