South Africa’s African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance have agreed to form a coalition in which the former liberation movement and the pro-business party will set aside their rivalry in an historic governance pact.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s centrist preferences ultimately won out over more leftwing factions of the ANC that wanted to strike a deal with breakaway parties that back nationalisation and seizing land from white farmers. The deal was struck amid criticisms that the DA favours the interests of South Africa’s white minority, something it denies.
The ANC lost its parliamentary majority in 29 May elections for the first time since it swept to power in 1994 at the end of apartheid. Its vote share collapsed from 57.5% in 2019 to 40.2%, as supporters defected to breakaway parties amid chronic unemployment and worsening public services.
The free-market-supporting DA, which received almost 22% of the vote, will back Ramaphosa’s election by lawmakers for a second term, while its MPs will also vote for an ANC speaker of parliament in return for the position of deputy speaker, its leader, John Steenhuisen, told a press briefing.
“Today, the DA becomes a party of national government,” Steenhuisen said, after the legislators were sworn in at a convention centre in Cape Town, while the parliament buildings are still being renovated after a fire in 2022.
“Through their votes, the people have made it clear that they do not want any one party to dominate our society. The people have also told us that the time for finger pointing is over and that the time for a new politics of collaboration and problem solving has arrived.”
An ANC-DA coalition was favoured by large businesses and international investors, with Ramaphosa expected to continue to try pushing forward policies such as allowing the private sector to generate renewable energy, which has contributed to a fall in power cuts.
Negotiations will continue after Friday on policies and cabinet positions, Steenhuisen said, adding that the two-week period after election results that the constitution mandates for the election of a president was not long enough to reach a full coalition agreement.
A “statement of intent” signed by the ANC and DA includes a commitment to a “merit-based, non-partisan and professional civil service”. The DA has long criticised the ANC appointment of its supporters to public sector positions, known in South Africa as “cadre deployment”, claiming it fosters corruption.
