South African President Cyril Ramaphosa casts his ballot in a vote for the speaker of parliament during the first sitting of the National Assembly following elections at the Cape Town International Convention Center in Cape Town, South Africa, on June 14.Nic Bothma/Reuters
South Africa’s biggest opposition party has agreed to join a coalition government with the long-ruling African National Congress and several smaller parties, allowing the ANC to continue leading the government despite losing its majority in last month’s election.
The coalition deal, signed by the two main parties on Friday, paved the way for President Cyril Ramaphosa to remain in power. He won re-election by a vote of 283 to 44 in parliament on Friday, defeating the only other candidate, Julius Malema of the third-biggest opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, which has refused to join the coalition.
The pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA), which finished second in the recent national election, will be awarded several cabinet posts under the coalition deal. It is also gaining a stronger role in parliament, including the deputy speaker’s job and the leadership of some parliamentary committees.
DA Leader John Steenhuisen said the agreement with the ANC will lead to policy reforms to boost the stagnant South African economy. He said the DA will “co-govern” the country “in a spirit of unity and collaboration.” But he acknowledged that the DA’s share of cabinet positions will be in line with its 22-per-cent share of the vote in the national election, while the ANC will control the largest number of cabinet posts.
In the election in late May, the ANC lost its majority for the first time in three decades. The former anti-apartheid movement took power under Nelson Mandela in 1994 after the end of white minority rule and had dominated every election until last month, when it won only 40 per cent of the vote, down sharply from 57 per cent in the previous election in 2019.
Some prominent ANC politicians are bitterly opposed to the DA, a liberal party which has white leaders and is widely perceived as white-dominated. But they were outweighed by Mr. Ramaphosa’s supporters in the party, who were willing to deal with the DA.
“We are in no position to govern this country alone,” ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told a news conference on Thursday night. “Strutting like peacocks in arrogance will not work in this instance.”
He said the coalition deal will “gravitate towards the centre” with pragmatic policies.
South Africa’s fifth-biggest party, the conservative Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which won 4 per cent of the vote, will also join the coalition government. Other partners are not yet known.
The ANC says a “majority” of the 18 parties in parliament will be represented in the coalition government, but key elements of the coalition deal are still being negotiated, including the composition of cabinet.
After the new cabinet is appointed, the coalition members will meet in a “strategy session” to negotiate the government’s policy priorities, Mr. Steenhuisen said.
Under the agreement signed on Friday, the new government will consult its coalition partners on key policy decisions. When there is disagreement, it will proceed on the basis of “sufficient consensus” – defined as an agreement among parties representing 60 per cent of parliamentary seats, which essentially means the ANC and the DA.
South Africa’s foreign policy, including its genocide allegations against Israel at the International Court of Justice, is not expected to change significantly under the new coalition government.
Under the coalition agreement, South Africa’s foreign policy will be “based on human rights, constitutionalism, the national interest, solidarity, [and] peaceful resolution of conflicts.” It aims to achieve the African Union’s goals for the continent, along with “South-South, North-South and African cooperation, multilateralism and a just, peaceful and equitable world.”
The ANC, the DA and IFP have also succeeded in forming coalition governments in South Africa’s two most populous provinces: Gauteng, the industrial heartland where Johannesburg and Pretoria are located, and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), on the Indian Ocean coast. Premiers from coalition parties were elected in both provincial legislatures in parliamentary votes on Friday.
The national coalition deal will exclude the third-biggest party, MK, a populist party headed by former president Jacob Zuma that wants to abolish the constitution, nationalize key industrial sectors and transfer power to tribal kings and queens.
His party boycotted the opening of the national parliament on Friday and tried to secure control of the KZN government, where it won 45 per cent of the vote. But it failed to defeat the narrow majority that the ANC and its partners cobbled together in the province.