ANC WILL SEEK NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA, RAMAPHOSA SAYS

Fri 07 June 2024:

African National Congress (ANC) leader Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa declared that his party would pursue a national unity government, claiming that this would reflect the wishes of the electorate and help move the country forward.

Following an hours-long meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) in Johannesburg, where ANC leaders convened to try and reach a consensus on a post-election strategy, Ramaphosa made the announcement late on Thursday.

The ANC had lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in the democratic era, but it remains the largest party in the country.

“We agreed to invite political parties to form a government of national unity as the best option to move our country forward,” Ramaphosa told reporters.

“The purpose of the government of national unity must be first and foremost to tackle the pressing issues that South Africans want to be addressed.”

He called for the “broadest unity” amongst South Africans to tackle the country’s issues, including crime, poverty, high cost of living and corruption.

“This moment also calls for multiparty cooperation and multi-stakeholder collaboration if we are to overcome the severe challenges that confront our country,” Ramaphosa said.

He added that the ANC heard the people of South Africa and recognised their “frustration” voiced during the May 29 vote.

The former liberation movement has ruled South Africa since Nelson Mandela won the 1994 election that ended apartheid. However, it was punished for its chequered record in last week’s election.

While the ANC remains the largest party, it can no longer govern alone.

South Africa has been struggling with sluggish economic growth, high levels of poverty and unemployment, a persistent racial wealth divide, severe power shortages and political corruption.

The election outcome has created a complex situation for the ANC, which will have 159 of the 400 seats in the new National Assembly – down from 230 in 2019.

The ANC’s nearest rivals are the pro-business, white-led Democratic Alliance (DA), with 87 seats, the populist uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), led by former President Jacob Zuma, with 58, and the hard-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 39.

The new parliament has to convene within two weeks of Sunday’s results declaration and one of its first acts must be to elect the president.

The DA, for its part, indicated on Wednesday that it did not want to join a government that included MK and the EFF.

Financial markets would welcome any agreement with the DA, but it would be unpopular with many ANC supporters, who see the party as a champion of what some South Africans refer to as “white monopoly capital”.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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