CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and other senior officials African National Congress Party The two parties held a crucial meeting on Thursday to decide whether to formally propose a “unity” government bringing together all the major parties to resolve the political impasse in Africa’s most industrialised country by a June 16 deadline.
A government of national unity, described by ANC officials as the preferred choice, would evoke South Africa’s 1994 transition from apartheid white-minority rule to democracy.
And the new president Nelson Mandela To promote unity in a divided country, he welcomed political dissenters, including the last apartheid leaders, into his first government.
It was a remarkable act of conciliation by Mandela but after last week’s elections the ANC has now been forced to act. Lost 30 years of majority He assured them that they needed to cooperate with other countries to form a government.
The ANC has held a majority since the end of apartheid, but in this election, despite being the largest party, it received just 40% of the vote.
“We want everyone on board,” ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said of the unity government proposal. He was speaking at an ANC meeting to decide whether to support the unity government. A narrower coalition One or two groups will probably last all day.
Some agreement It needs to come into force by June 16, the deadline for South Africa’s new parliament to sit and elect a president.
South Africans vote for political parties, which receive seats in parliament according to the percentage of the vote they receive. Parliamentarians then elect a president. Ramaphosa is still expected to be a presidential candidate in a multi-party government, but he must be formally elected. The ANC lost its majority in parliament, so he would need support from other parties to be re-elected. Ramaphosa, 71, is seeking his second and final term in office.
South Africa is trying to minimise uncertainty through a complex process that is expected to drag on into next week, keeping South Africans on edge at one of the most critical times. In their young democracy.
The unity government is the ANC and The main opposition Democratic AllianceThe DA party came in second with nearly 22% of the vote.
More than 50 parties ran in the election, with at least eight receiving significant support. Far-left economic freedom fighteror EFF, wants to nationalise parts of South Africa’s economy, including its key gold and platinum mines and central bank.
There is also New MK Party Former President Jacob Zuma’s position is that there will be no negotiations while Ramaphosa is ANC leader. Mainly driven by Zuma’s hostility To the man who replaced him as president.
The ANC’s plan for a unity government will be taken to other parties, some of which are even more at odds with the ANC – the DA, for example, has pledged never to work with the EFF or MK, so there are clear conflicts to overcome.
There are also divisions within the ANC, which is not entirely in support of a possible coalition government. Mbalula said arguments and disagreements were expected at Thursday’s meeting, which will likely last all day. The meeting is a meeting of the ANC’s national executive committee, made up of more than 80 senior party officials, including Ramaphosa as ANC leader. This committee decides the party’s direction.
While the ANC’s top leaders are seen as open to a direct coalition with the DA, the party’s grassroots members are opposed to it, with its often unspoken racial overtones in a country still grappling with a history of brutal racial segregation.
Some ANC supporters and allies, such as the National Trade Union Congress, portray the white-led DA as a party that prioritises the interests of the white minority over black South Africans, who make up more than 80 percent of the country’s population.
The DA rejected that notion, pointing to its large number of black supporters, reflected in the fact that it received the second highest number of votes in the country.
Political analyst Assanda Ngoashene said an inclusive government of national unity was the “safest option” for the ANC to shore up its support base after a disastrous election result and avoid the economic uncertainty that would come with a shrinking coalition with the Marxist EFF.
“I think a multi-party unity government is the best way forward and the wisest decision,” she told news channel Newsroom Africa.
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