The Democratic Alliance, which came in second in the May 29 voting, says it will back President Cyril Ramaphosa’s re-election.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has reached an agreement with three opposition parties, including its main rival, the Democratic Alliance (DA), to form a national unity government, state broadcaster SABC reported on Friday.
The move comes as lawmakers, elected last month, took the oath of office at the country’s legislative capital, Cape Town. Among the MPs sworn in on Friday was South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is seeking a second term. He will give up his seat in parliament if he wins the presidency.
The first session of the new National Assembly, presided over by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, is expected to elect a speaker via secret ballot; several nominations were received for the position. Following the appointment of the speaker, MPs will decide upon the country’s next leader.
Ramaphosa’s ANC lost its majority for the first time in the nation’s post-Apartheid history in the elections held on May 29, obtaining 40.18% of the vote — 159 seats in the 400-seat parliament — down from 230 in the previous election.
The ANC has been negotiating with several opposition groups about various coalition government arrangements following the declaration of results by the electoral commission.
On Friday, SABC said Africa’s oldest liberation movement, together with the DA, the socially conservative Inkatha Freedom Party, and the right-wing Patriotic Alliance, had agreed to a unity government.
Under the agreement, the center-right DA, which received 22% of the vote and won 87 seats, would get the post of deputy speaker of the National Assembly, according to the outlet.
“It [the coalition deal] details the executive decision-making process, a conflict-breaking mechanism, and provides guidelines for policymaking and the finalization of the national budget,” News24 also reported.
The ANC announced on Thursday that it had reached a “breakthrough on the common agreement” with other parties to “work together,” but that it was not yet in a position to reveal the details of the pact.
On Friday, DA leader John Steenhuisen told reporters that the party will back Ramaphosa as South Africa’s next president.
“From today the DA will co-govern the Republic of South Africa in a spirit of unity and collaboration… we do so both for the millions who voted for us and all South Africans who yearn for a better government,” he said.
The ruling coalition has previously accused the DA of attempting to “mortgage” the country’s sovereignty to foreign powers after it wrote to the US and other Western governments requesting assistance in monitoring the May elections. It has also been accused of representing white privilege in a country with a black population of 81.4%, which Steenhuisen denies.
“It has also been accused of representing white privilege…”
Ah yes, that white South African “privilege” I’ve been hearing so much about: Being denied bursaries and scholarships because of your skin colour, being last in line for job offers due to the country’s B.E.E policies, being statistically more likely to be the victim of an armed robbery, hijacking, rape or murder (especially if you’re a farmer), being constantly shamed for your culture and your history (despite the fact that there’s MUCH in your history to be proud of eg the first human heart transplant), and last but not least the “privilege” of cobbling all your life savings together in your sh!tty devalued currency just to afford a plane ticket to another country which you can watch fill up with other Africans arriving for free and turning your new country into the one you just left. And if you dare make your feelings about any of it known, big tech and their cancel pig minions will bring the wrath of hell down upon you and your bloodline.
Yeah, wonderful privilege there. Need ME some of that too 👍
White and european ;
Not nice, but a taste of our own medicine.
We, as a civilisation , have been ruling the world for centuries. Others also want to have a go at it. The wheel of time is just turning
Nope, not “a taste of our medicine”. I reject that in the strongest possible terms.
I’ve never owned slaves. I owe no apologies for slavery to people who’ve never been slaves. Equality under the law has been a thing for decades now (close to a century), there is no more “systemic” ANYTHING, it’s pseudo-intellectual mind cancer and racial jealousy, all pushed out by woke universities and fake academics. If your life sucks, stop making stupid decisions. This principle can be applied no matter your skin colour (amazing isn’t it?)
My ancestors didn’t climb on ships and brave months of starvation and disease on the seas, just to sail the world in search of new people to be mean racists to. That’s stupid, leftist revisionist BS history 101. Most of them were fleeing tyranny, poverty and disease. Some lost children and loved ones along the way, and when they finally arrived on the other side they had nothing but a hard life of work and toil in the sun to look forward to.
Not their fault the new lands they found were inhabited by nomadic Stone Age squatters who’d built nothing and done nothing but chase animals around for a millennium. Who happily signed treaties to sell the settlers land that they themselves had acquired through violence and war.
Explorer ships sailing the seas in search of new lands to colonise is brave and beautiful when its Disney’s Moana and her people doing it, but when it’s Vasco da Gama or James Cook it’s apparently a “DARK CHAPTER IN HUMAN HISTORY😱”
They can p!ss right off with this garbage already.
ZERO inherited guilt for anything. Sorry not sorry.
It is not about YOU personnally. Or YOUR family, kin etc.
And don t say ” settlers”, especially anglo- saxon were not racists.
It is the dutch calvinists who invented apartheid and racial seggregation. Yes, i maintain, a taste of own medicine….
Okay well, enjoy being wrong 👍