Cyril Ramaphosa was to be re-elected as president of South Africa on Friday evening by the new Parliament resulting from the last legislative elections. His party the ANC reached an unprecedented government agreement with the main opposition party, the liberal DA.
This government should gravitate ‘around the center’, between the ANC, which remains the majority party with 159 of the 400 deputies, the Democratic Alliance (DA, 87 seats) and the Zulu nationalist party Inkhata (IFP, 17 seats).
The announcement of this future coalition government represents a major turning point, after thirty years of unchallenged rule by the African National Congress (ANC), since the election in 1994 of Nelson Mandela, the first black president of this young democracy who triumphed over segregationist apartheid regime.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) announced on Friday that it had reached a government agreement with the ANC, positioned ‘around the rational center of the political spectrum’.
‘Best opportunity’
Its leader John Steenhuisen estimated that this ‘government of national unity’ was ‘the best opportunity’ for the country ‘to obtain stability and good clean governance’, specifying that the allocation of ministerial positions was not still decided.
‘We talk about values and principles first, then positions,’ added Mr. Steenhuisen, whose group will support the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as president of the country in the evening.
‘Apart from the DA and IFP, Mr Ramaphosa will seek support from smaller parties, to guard against the possibility that some members of his own party, the ANC, will shun him,’ warned the political scientist Susan Booysen.
‘He will need this bumper’, she believes, despite the relaxation displayed by Mr Ramaphosa at the opening of the session.
Parliament elected Thoko Didiza, 58 years old and of Zulu origin, currently Minister of Agriculture and member of the ANC, as president. But it was the DA which took the place of vice-president, with the election of Annelie Lotriet, 63, to this position.
Without the left
If the very popular Cyril Ramaphosa is the only candidate proposed for the presidency of the country, he will be automatically elected. Otherwise, a secret ballot will be held. The inauguration of the head of state should take place on Wednesday in Pretoria, according to a government source.
For several days, an ANC-DA-IFP troika had taken shape, despite tensions on the left of the ANC, which took a dim view of an alliance with the DA, appreciated by the business world but which remains widely perceived as the party of Whites and opposed to the weight of social assistance on the budget in particular.
On Wednesday, the leader of Inkhata had for his part confirmed the rumor, justifying his participation in the future government by the need for ‘stability’ of the country.
On Thursday, the secretary general of the ANC, Fikile Mbalula, announced ‘a breakthrough’ towards a common agreement, confirming that the coalition would gravitate ‘around the centre’, after a rejection of any agreement by the left opposition .
Last week, President Ramaphosa invited all parties to ‘work together’ to form a ‘national unity government’, a reference to the formula found at the end of apartheid uniting the first black president Nelson Mandela to the last president white, Frederik de Klerk.
The MK, the new party of former president accused of corruption Jacob Zuma, which has become the third political force with 58 seats, has refused any discussion with the ANC.
His party continues to contest the results of the legislative elections and its deputies were largely absent on Friday during this first parliamentary session.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF, radical left, 39 seats), which notably advocate the privatization of key sectors of the economy, refused to join a government including the liberal DA.
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