South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has deployed 3,474 soldiers from March 17 to April 17 to maintain peace, the country's Parliament said Sunday, Xinhua reports.

The Parliament said in a statement that they have been informed by the president of the employment of the South African National Defense Force for service, in cooperation with the South African Police Service, for the prevention and combating of crime as well as peace maintenance.

The country's opposition political party Economic Freedom Fighters has called for a national shutdown on March 20 to force President Ramaphosa to resign.

The employment of the soldiers is in line with the Constitution of South Africa, and an amount of more than 166 million rands (about 8.99 million U.S. dollars) is expected to be incurred for this deployment, the Parliament said.