Around two-thirds of the left-leaning African National Congress party's lawmakers in South Africa's National Assembly have urged the party's leadership to remove the center-right Democratic Alliance from government on the basis that the DA was undermining the ANC and government cohesion, The Sunday Times reported on May 4. Key proponents of removing the DA include Deputy President Paul Mashatile and Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe, but ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula reportedly rejected these demands, stressing that this decision rested in the hands of the party's National Executive Committee.