South Africa’s African National Congress is still trying to hammer out a coalition government deal before parliament votes for the country’s president on Friday, after the party’s chair said the second-largest party, the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA), was onboard with a “government of national unity” (GNU).
The ANC lost its parliamentary majority in 29 May elections for the first time since the former liberation movement swept to power in 1994 at the end of apartheid. Its vote share collapsed from 57.5% in 2019 to 40%, as supporters defected to breakaway parties amid chronic unemployment and worsening public services.
“We’ve engaged with the DA. We agree on the GNU,” the ANC chair, Fikile Mbalula, told a press conference late on Thursday, listing seven other smaller parties he said were onboard with the coalition government or likely to join it.
Mbalula said the ANC had spoken with all political parties elected to the national parliament, adding: “We hope that we will work with many of them in the election of the president.”
A DA spokesperson, Solly Malatsi, said: “For as long as there isn’t a signed deal nothing is conclusive yet.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who wants to be elected for a second term, called last week for parties to join a GNU. His faction of the ANC is seen as favouring a tie-up with the DA, a scenario also favoured by large businesses and international investors.
The DA received almost 22% of the vote, but many black South Africans think it favours the interests of the smaller white minority, something the party denies.
Two smaller parties, the Inkatha Freedom party, a Zulu nationalist party, and the Patriotic Alliance, which wants to bring back the death penalty and deport illegal immigrants, have said they will join the government.
The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which came a surprise third in the election after being launched in December by the former president Jacob Zuma, has said its MPs will not be sworn into parliament. The MK, which had a legal challenge to the election results rejected by the country’s top court, has also said it will not work with the ANC while it is led by Ramaphosa.
The far-left Economic Freedom Fighters has said it will not join a government with the “racist” DA.
Parliament will also elect a speaker and deputy speaker on Friday. Mbalula said the “work” of forming a government would continue after the election of the president.
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Guardian
