#South Africa
New South African era dawns as ANC forced into coalition
- The ANC, once led by Nelson Mandela, hit by worst election result since apartheid ended 30 years ago
- It is now official that the party has lost its majority in the National Assembly for the first time
- The distribution of seats in the 400-member parliament directly reflects the vote share
- In his first comments, President Cyril Ramaphosa says ‘our people have spoken whether we like it or not’
- With an eye on coalition talks he adds that the voters want the parties to find common ground
- The centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) remains the second-largest party in parliament
- The new MK party, led by ex-President Jacob Zuma, is in third place. It has refused to work with President Ramaphosa
- The DA leader makes a pitch to work with the ANC, calling an ANC alliance with the MK and EFF a ‘doomsday coalition’
- The MK party had wanted the announcement postponed
- The country’s police minister has warned that instability will not be tolerated
