The Democratic Alliance (DA) is using Parliament to advance its plan to have the African National Congress (ANC) removed from power, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Thursday.

”It is no surprise that the DA wants early elections, they recently set a motion of no confidence vote against the President [Jacob Zuma]. Their target is ultimately to see the ANC removed from power…I am sure there will be another debate from the DA with the same aim after this latest one,” Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini told reporters in Johannesburg after the federation’s central committee meeting.

”It is their right to do so, South Africans are watching. We have elections in 2019, the DA is campaigning and if people ignore that, they would be doing that to their own peril. The DA is campaigning to win 2019 elections and it is using Parliament to advance their wish.”

The DA has tabled a motion in the National Assembly calling for early elections. MPs are set to debate the motion on Tuesday.

The DA announced the motion on August 9, the day after an opposition motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma failed to pass, but caused bitter political fallout in the ruling party by drawing the support of a number of ANC MPs. At least 26 members of the party voted in favour of it in a secret ballot.

The latest motion was brought in terms of section 50(1) of the Constitution, which allows for a simple majority decision to dissolve Parliament and hold early elections.

Dlamini said there was no need ”to be worried” by the DA’s latest efforts, as the party was exploiting the political dynamics and the weaknesses in the governing ANC.

”They want to use these opportunities and ensure that they win elections should early elections take place. Cosatu continues to call for a united ANC capable of uniting all South Africans. The ANC is our ally and should unite so that parties such as the DA do not continue to exploit opportunities to their advantage,” Dlamini said.

The country’s biggest trade union federation has, along with the SA Communist Party (SACP), called for Zuma to step down, and went further to ban him from attending its events.

Dlamini said the mooted judicial inquiry into state capture should not be limited to the ”State of Capture” report by former public protector Thuli Madonsela, but go beyond 1994 and reveal who was guilty of capturing government dating back from the apartheid era.

”We have always said that the South African state has long been captured. One of the areas of such capture has been through Treasury, way before 1994…that is how far corporate capture of the state goes. We say so because we do not want to miss or ignore other areas of state capture, we should know who has been getting tenders at Eskom over so many decades…apart from the Guptas, we should know how many other families have been getting tenders from Eskom, Denel and SAA.”

A nationwide strike by Cosatu against state capture, job losses and rampant corruption, both in the public and private sector, is scheduled to take place on September 27. Dlamini cautioned that although there were many issues facing the country, the strike was not about the demand for Zuma to step down, but the fight against corruption and state capture.