South Africa’s ANC has outline of a deal on new government, says official

A senior official in South Africa’s ruling African National Congress said on Thursday it had reached broad agreement with the main opposition and other parties on the formation of a government of national unity.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said there had been “a major breakthrough” as most of the 17 parties it spoke to had agreed to be part of a unity government.

Although final details of the agreement were still being negotiated, Mbalula said the government should involve the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), and the Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom party (IFP), as well as a number of smaller groups.

The pact could allow the South African parliament to re-elect Cyril Ramaphosa as president as early as Friday, as well as choose a new speaker.

In elections last month, the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in the post apartheid era.

Mbalula said of the ANC discussions with other parties: “We hope that we will work with many of them in the election of the president and the speaker.

“I’m not in a position at the present moment to deal with the details as that is a matter still [under] discussion.”

ANC president Ramaphosa has dubbed the expected new coalition a “government of national unity” to help convince leftwingers in his party who are resistant to working with the pro-market DA.

Neither Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party nor the Economic Freedom Fighters (EEF), led by Julius Malema, are likely to be part of the government. Both advocate nationalising key parts of the economy.

Frans Cronje, a political analyst, said the DA had ended up pushing for a coalition government as the price of its support for Ramaphosa. 

Cronje said a peaceful transition to a coalition would be a significant achievement for South Africa’s democracy, avoiding both a market-upending shift leftward or the violence threatened by Zuma, who disputes the election result. 

“Look where we are and where we aren’t,” added Cronje. “We aren’t at a radical populist collapse and we don’t have shooting in the streets.”  

Malema said on Thursday he had met Ramaphosa and told him the EFF would not be part of any government that includes the DA as it represented “colonialism” and “white supremacy”.

Velenkosini Hlabisa, IFP leader, confirmed on Wednesday his party would join an ANC-DA government. 

IFP’s involvement in the government would help it appeal to Zulu voters who deserted the ANC for the MK. 

The ANC on Wednesday met its alliance partners, the labour federation Cosatu and the South African Communist party (SACP), to present its plans for a government of national unity.

While SACP secretary-general Solly Mapaila has previously spoken of “rejecting” a coalition with either the DA or the MK, Cosatu appeared more open to a deal. 

“The DA will always be a tough sell,” Cosatu’s spokesperson Matthew Parks said, referring to the liberal economic agenda of the DA, which is led by John Steenhuisen and has traditionally been the party of white and other minority voters. 

But he added Cosatu understood “the ANC’s logic, given the challenges we’re facing as a country and [given] it didn’t win a majority”.  

South Africa’s constitutional court on Wednesday rejected an application from the MK to ban parliament’s meeting on Friday, in a move that would have scuppered the approval of a new government.