Johannesburg:

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa announced his new government on Sunday with the opposition receiving 12 out of 32 portfolios following tough coalition negotiations after the ruling ANC lost its outright parliamentary majority.

The African National Congress, which has governed the country since the advent of democracy in 1994, retained 20 out of 32 cabinet positions, including key ministries such as foreign affairs, finance, defence, justice and police. 

The largest coalition partner, the Democratic Alliance (DA), will hold six portfolios including home affairs, environment and public works.

The DA’s leader John Steenhuisen, 48, was appointed Minister of Agriculture. 

The Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and other smaller parties scored six in total including land reform, correctional services, sports, tourism and public service. 

“The establishment of the Government of National Unity in its current form is unprecedented in the history of our democracy,” the 71-year-old Ramaphosa said, speaking from Pretoria in a televised speech. 

He was re-elected for a second full term last week, to lead what his humbled ANC calls a government of national unity (GNU) after losing its outright majority in the May 29 general election. 

“The incoming government will prioritise rapid, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and a creation of a more just society by tackling poverty and inequality as well as unemployment,” he said.

Adding that he had to “ensure all the parties are able to participate meaningfully in the national executive as well as various parliamentary positions”.

The only other time South Africa has opted for a national unity government was at the end of apartheid, with Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk, the former leader of the government, overseeing the transition to democracy as executive deputy presidents. 

Tough negotiations

The ANC’s fall from grace came against a backdrop of high violent crime rates, a lacklustre economy and a crippling energy crisis. 

Ramaphosa’s highly anticipated announcement comes after weeks of tough negotiations between the ANC and the DA, which won 87 parliamentary seats (22 percent of the popular vote) compared to the ANC’s 159 (40 percent). 

The turbulent build-up to the country’s new government was met with criticism from the country’s leftist parties, including the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, a new grouping formed a few months ahead of the poll by the country’s former president Jacob Zuma, 82. 

The MK party came out of nowhere to win more than 14 percent of votes nationwide in the tense poll and now well be the country’s official opposition after refusing to join the ANC’s broad coalition.

Along with the leftist firebrand party the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), it shunned the ANC’s broad coalition with the DA as a “white-led unholy alliance”. 

The ANC had previously accused the DA of making “outrageous demands” for key cabinet positions in documents leaked to the press following weeks of closed-doors negotiations. 

Ramaphosa has called for the opening of the new parliament on July 18 to address MPs and outline guidelines of how his new coalition government, involving 11 parties, will work.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) said on June 2 that it would enter talks with other parties to form a new government, after losing its three-decade-old absolute majority in a watershed election.

With 99.91% of the votes from Wednesday’s election counted, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s African National Congress had only 40.2%, a catastrophic slump from the 57.5% it won in 2019.

Also read | Why was Jacob Zuma disallowed from contesting elections in South Africa: Explained

“The ANC is committed to the formation of a government that reflects the will of the people, that is stable and that is able to govern effectively,” ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told a press conference.

“The voters of South Africa have shown that they expect the leaders of this country to work together in the interests of all,” he said.

The party must negotiate a coalition government or at least persuade others to back Mr. Ramaphosa’s re-election in parliament to allow him to form a minority administration.

Mr. Mbalula said the ANC would hold discussions internally and with other groups “over the next few days”.

It marks a historic turning point for South Africa as the party has enjoyed an absolute majority since 1994, when liberation hero Nelson Mandela led the nation out of white-minority rule and into democracy.

‘Clear message’

“The results send a clear message to the ANC,” Mr. Mbalula said.

“We wish to assure the people of South Africa that we have heard them. We have heard their concerns, their frustrations and their dissatisfaction.”

The final results are to be formally announced on Sunday, with Mr. Ramaphosa due to deliver an address during an official ceremony near Johannesburg.

But some parties have alleged discrepancies in the vote count.

The largest and most vocal was former President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), which warned electoral authorities against going ahead with the final announcements.

“If that happens you are going to be provoking us,” Mr. Zuma, 82, said on Saturday, alleging unspecified “serious” issues but providing no supporting evidence.

He said he would make a speech when the final results were announced.

Data from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) showed MK in third place on 14.59%, a surprise score for a party founded just months ago as a vehicle for the former ANC secretary general.

But throughout the campaign, MK told supporters it was going to win two-thirds of the vote.

‘No-go area’

The ANC will now have to turn to opponents from the left or the right to form a government.

The centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) held second place with 21.78%, slightly up on its 20.77% showing in 2019.

It governs Western Cape province and has promised a free-market agenda at odds with the ANC’s left-wing traditions.

DA chairwoman Helen Zille said all options were on the table, including allowing the ANC to rule alone as a minority government.

The radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema, was in fourth with 9.51%.

Mr. Malema and Mr. Zuma are former ANC members and some observers have suggested they would be more natural partners for a governing coalition.

Other analysts said their demands might be hard to meet, and the rift between Mr. Ramaphosa and Mr. Zuma — who has long been bitter about the way he was forced out of office in 2018 — too far reaching to mend.

MK said it would not negotiate with the ANC as long as Mr. Ramaphosa remained its leader.

But Mr. Mbalula said that was “a no-go area”.

“No political party will dictate terms like that to us,” he said.

Mr. Zuma, who was forced out of office in 2018 under a cloud of corruption allegations, was jailed for contempt of court in 2021, an event that triggered riots in which more than 350 people died.

On Sunday, Police Minister Bheki Cele said the security forces were ready “to ensure continued peaceful conditions after the elections”, adding that “There is no room for threats of instability.”

Speaking alongside him, Defence Minister Thandi Modise said the government had “not engaged directly with the MK party” but had “called for calm during the campaign”.

“We will not tolerate for anyone to tarnish South Africa,” Modise said.

The ANC remains respected for its leading role in overthrowing white minority rule, and its progressive social welfare and black economic empowerment policies are credited by supporters with helping millions of black families out of poverty.

But over three decades of almost unchallenged rule, its leadership has been implicated in a series of corruption scandals, while the continent’s most industrialised economy has languished and crime and unemployment figures have hit record highs.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa casts his vote during the South African elections in Soweto, South Africa, on May 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

South Africa was heading closer to the reality of a national coalition government for the first time on Friday as partial election results put the ruling African National Congress well short of a majority.

With more than half of votes counted across the country’s nine provinces, the ANC had received just under 42% of the national vote. That represented a huge drop from the 57.5% it received in the last national election in 2019, although the final results from Wednesday’s election have not yet been declared.

The commission that runs the election said those would be announced by Sunday, possibly sooner.

The count from more than 13,000 of the 23,000 polling stations raised the strong possibility that the ANC would need a coalition partner to form a government and re-elect President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second and final term.

The leader of South Africa’s main Opposition party said he was open to working with the ANC, although he would have to first speak with a group of other parties that he has a preelection agreement with.

“The way to rescue South Africa is to break the ANC’s majority and we have done that,” said John Steenhuisen, the leader of the Democratic Alliance party.

The ANC is widely expected to still be the biggest party and to have the most seats in parliament.

A child plays with her teddy bear as people cast their votes at a polling station on the Cape Flats during South African elections in Cape Town, South Africa, May 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The African National Congress appeared on course to lose the parliamentary majority it has held for 30 years, partial results from South Africa’s national election showed, in what would be the most dramatic political shift since the end of apartheid.

With results from 10% of polling stations, the ANC’s share of the vote on May 29th’s election stood at 42.3%, with the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) at 26.3% and the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at 8.1%, data from the electoral commission showed.

If the final results were to resemble the early picture, the ANC would be forced to make a deal with one or more other parties to govern— a situation that could lead to unprecedented political volatility in the coming weeks or months.

Under South Africa’s constitution, the newly elected National Assembly will elect the next president.

With the ANC still on course to be the largest party, its leader Cyril Ramaphosa is likely to remain as the country’s president, although a poor showing could make him vulnerable to a leadership challenge from within party ranks.

The ANC has won national elections held every five years since the landmark 1994 election, which marked the end of apartheid and the ascent of Nelson Mandela as President.

But since those heady days the ANC’s support has declined because of disillusionment over issues such as high unemployment and crime, frequent power blackouts and corruption.

The early results showed the ANC and the DA neck-and-neck on about 34% each in the key province of Gauteng, which includes the country’s business capital Johannesburg and the sprawling townships of Soweto and Alexandra.

The Zuma factor

In KwaZulu-Natal, a populous eastern province where the major city of Durban is located, a new party led by former President Jacob Zuma, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), was performing strongly, with 41.7% of the vote versus 20.1% for the ANC.

Zuma was forced to quit as President in 2018 after a string of scandals and has since fallen out with the ANC leadership, leading him to throw his weight behind MK. The party, named after the ANC’s armed wing from the apartheid era, appeared to be costing both the ANC and the EFF votes, especially in KwaZulu-Natal.

By law, the electoral commission has seven days to declare full results, but in practice it is usually faster than that. In the last election, in 2019, voting took place on May 29 like this year and final results came on May 31

The new Parliament must convene within 14 days of final results being declared and its first act must be to elect the nation’s President.

This means that if the ANC is confirmed to have lost its majority there could be two weeks of intense and complex negotiations to agree on how to form a new government.

Even as elections in India are drawing to a close, the citizens of yet another BRICS country and emerging economy are going to the polls on May 29. The largest country in GDP (nominal) terms in Africa, South Africa has been ruled for three decades by the party that was most associated with the anti-Apartheid struggle — the African National Congress (ANC).

Identified with leaders such as Nobel prize winning Nelson Mandela, who went on to become the first President of racially-integrated South Africa, the ANC has maintained its dominance as the party of governance in the country, so much so that political observers have termed the ANC’s rule in South Africa one of a dominant party presiding over a “party-state”.

The ANC today is helmed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, a businessman with a long association with the party, who served as chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly after the first democratic elections in South Africa following the end of Apartheid in 1994. Mr. Ramaphosa emerged as ANC president after a strongly contested leadership race against Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who was supported by then president and widely derided to be a corrupt leader, Jacob Zuma. After the election, Mr. Zuma resigned following pressure from the party and Mr. Ramaphosa was elected unopposed as the President of South Africa by the National Assembly in February 2018.

Mr. Ramaphosa was seen by many as someone who could bring in change after Mr. Zuma’s controversial years. But his government, elected in May 2019 after winning 57.5% of the votes in the general election, had to tackle many economic challenges — the outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic, the inherited weaknesses in the economy and the many failures of state-owned enterprises.

Also read: People of Indian descent seek to leave their mark in South African polls

As a party leader, he also had to confront a leadership that included heavyweights who were associated with Mr. Zuma. In July 2021, when Mr. Zuma refused to comply with a summons order from a Constitutional Court that was set up to inquire into allegations of “state capture” and “fraud” in the public sector during his tenure, he was sentenced to 15 months of imprisonment. Mr. Zuma went on to announce that he would be voting for the newly formed party, the uMkhonto we Sizwe (named after the armed organisation affiliated to the ANC during the anti-Apartheid struggle) in the 2024 elections despite being a lifelong member of the ANC.

Earlier, factional troubles in the ANC had also resulted in the formation of new parties such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) by former ANC Youth League leaders. The EFF, which won 10.8% of the vote in the 2019 elections, retains an ideological view that is closer to some of the radical sections of the ANC and believes in measures such as nationalisation of mines, banks and other industries and appeals to unemployed youth who are not seen as ANC supporters.

While the ANC is expected to retain its presence as the single largest party in the coming elections, its performance could be dented by concerns among South Africans about persisting poverty and rising inequality. The World Bank said in 2020 that 37.9% of the population is living at international poverty levels of $3.2 per person a day with 25% (13.8 million people) experiencing food poverty. The country’s Gini coefficient was 0.63 in its last measured value in 2014, showing widespread inequality.

Dampening enthusiasm

These concerns have already dampened voting enthusiasm among the ANC’s core Black voters. Voter turnout in South Africa among eligible voters fell from 85.53% in 1994 to 47.28% in 2019 after a steady decline election after election, according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). Dissatisfaction with the ANC’s performance has also led to disillusionment with democratic institutions itself with Afrobarometer in 2021 recording that only 40% of South Africans preferred democracy over non-democratic options.

The chief rival to the ANC in the South African party system remains the centrist Democratic Alliance, which has emphasised its opposition to what it calls the “state capture” of the ANC and its cadres and the reduction of the South African democratic system into a dominant one-party state. But it is largely seen as a party that represents the interests of the white minority and has been unable to expand its reach. Controversial views espoused by the DA’s leaders on the legacy of colonialism have only increased the suspicion among Black voters.

The core support base of the ANC, despite misgivings among its voters, remain those who have experienced racism during the Apartheid era and were aware of the ANC’s efforts during the struggle and many who still perceive the ANC as the only party capable of addressing the problems faced by the Black community in particular.

Formed in 1912 as the South African Native National Congress to press for rights of Black South Africans, it was renamed to its current appellation in 1923 and mostly functioned as an organisation devoted to getting legislation passed in favour of the community. But by the 1940s, with the influx of younger left-wing activists committed to mass mobilisation movements, trade union activity and resistance tactics, the ANC, under the leadership of Alfred Xuma, had become a major movement. In the 1950s, the ANC intensified its mass campaigns, which included strikes, boycotts and civil disobedience movements, and by 1955, it was a key signatory to the “Freedom Charter” that became vital to the anti-Apartheid struggle.

Tripartite Alliance

Other signatories included parties and organisations such as the South African Communist Party (SACP), the South African Indian Congress and trade unions. The SACP, along with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), remains aligned with the ANC as part of the Tripartite Alliance, which was forged in 1990 after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.

Organisations aligned with the ANC such as the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK or Spear of the Nation) launched an armed struggle against Apartheid in the 1960s after the ANC itself was banned and its leadership went underground. Leaders like Mandela were arrested and remained in jail for nearly three decades. Negotiations by the Apartheid regime with the ANC to end the system and transit into multi-racial democracy began in the 1980s. After the release of Mandela and the lifting of the ban on the ANC in the early 1990s, an interim Constitution was ratified. The ANC clinched a thumping victory in the 1994 elections and Mandela became President.

Also read: Water cuts add to people’s frustration as South Africa prepares for general polls

Mandela’s government was widely popular and allowed for a peaceful transition of power. But with the party retaining a structure which is largely hierarchical that reverted to a culture of patronage on assuming power, degeneration set in over the years. Ineffective governance, economic woes and allegations of chronic corruption led to a sharp decline in the ANC’s popularity, especially during the Zuma regime, with the party winning 57.5% of the vote in the 2019 elections.

With Mr. Ramaphosa being seen as unable to stem the decline and relying only on incremental steps to bring change in the party, the ANC may have to rely upon other parties in South Africa’s proportional representation system to continue to stay in power.

Residents of the Blairgowrie neighbourhood of Johannesburg, South Africa, demonstrate against the lack of water on March 12.
| Photo Credit: AP

Anger is mounting in some Johannesburg districts left without water for more than a week, fewer than three months before general elections marked by voter discontent with South Africa’s failing infrastructure.

With power cuts and potholes already part of daily life, recent water shortages have increased the frustration of many over poor service delivery — a key election issue — in the country’s most populous city.

Access to basic services such as water, electricity and refuse collection remain a recurring source of anger for many of the 62 million inhabitants in Africa’s most industrialised nation.

Due to a shortfall in energy production and frequent breakdowns at its ageing power stations, South Africa has for years suffered from economy-crippling, rolling power cuts that at their worst last up to 12 hours a day.

These eased in recent months, but water troubles soon appeared, further fuelling widespread frustration at the ruling African National Congress.

Struggling in the polls, the party risks losing its parliamentary majority for the first time since the advent of democracy in 1994 amid accusations of mismanagement and corruption, and high rates of crime, poverty and unemployment.

Some 27.5 million South Africans are registered to vote in national and provincial elections on May 29.