South Africa’s African National Congress party struck a deal Friday with the nation’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), to form the nation’s first coalition government since the end of apartheid 30 years ago.
The agreement will allow ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa to remain president but marks an end to three decades of outright ANC dominance in the South African government.
The ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in the May 29 elections, garnering roughly 40 percent of the vote, with the center-right DA party getting about 21 percent.
The governing agreement was formally announced in a televised address by DA party leader John Steenhuisen. He said the agreement came after two weeks of “intense but very mature negotiations,” and it “charts a new course for our nation.”
“At the heart of this government of national unity statement is a shared respect and defense of our Constitution and the rule of law including the bill of rights in its entirety," Steenhuisen said.
Two smaller parties, the socially conservative Inkatha Freedom Party and the right-wing Patriotic Alliance, will also take part in the new government.
The ANC has been bitter rivals for years with DA, the ANC’s fiercest critic. The DA is also the only party with a white leader in a nation that is 80 percent Black.
But now, Steenhuisen said, “the DA will no longer only be an opposition party at a national level. Instead, the DA now becomes the second biggest party inside a multi-party national government."
After they were sworn in, the new parliament — convening in a Cape Town convention center, after the national assembly building was damaged by fire in 2022 — was set to elect a speaker and the president later Friday.
The ANC and the DA hold a majority of seats in the 400-member Parliament, making Ramaphosa’s reelection all but certain.
The ANC’s deal with the pro-business DA was received well in financial markets, as stocks were higher and the South African currency, the rand, was trading about 0.7 percent stronger against the dollar Friday.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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