JOHANNESBURG—South Africa’s unity government was confirmed on June 14, when the country’s second-largest political party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), signed an agreement with the African National Congress (ANC).
In terms of the deal, the DA’s 87 members of parliament, plus others from a few smaller parties, joined the 159 ANC MPs to support a second term as president for ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa.
The ANC, in power since the end of apartheid in 1994, was forced to lobby support from other parties, notably the DA, to form a coalition government after it recently slumped to its worst election result, winning only 40 percent of the vote following a national election on May 29.
Political experts said voters punished the party for years of corruption, economic mismanagement, and lack of coherent policy.
All have contributed to the crises facing South Africa, including the world’s highest unemployment rate; high levels of violent crime, with a daily murder rate of 84; service delivery failures that leave the country without electricity and water for long periods, and rising poverty and hunger.
The DA—often accused by the ANC of not caring for the poor and for representing the interests of South Africa’s white minority—came in second with 22 percent.
“There are many differences between us and the ANC and we’ve been bitter opponents for many years, but we had to unite to keep certain forces out of the government,” DA leader John Steenhuisen said.
“These forces want to destroy South Africa for their own selfish ends, and we could not allow that to happen,” he told The Epoch Times.
“So we achieved in 10 days what other countries take months to achieve: We formed a coalition government. We’re going to do our best to make sure it succeeds.”
“But it’s a work in progress and all parties involved are under no illusion that tough days lie ahead. It’s not going to be easy. Nothing worth fighting for is ever easy, is it?”
The ANC and DA differ immensely in terms of foreign policy.
The former Soviet Union and China supported the ANC’s struggle against apartheid with weapons and money. The party’s foreign policy has reflected that, with the ANC forging close ties with Moscow and Beijing.
In contrast, the DA is pro-West, arguing for closer links with Europe and the United States, and shunning countries that it considers to be authoritarian human rights abusers.
The DA’s inclusion in a “government of national unity” means South Africa’s two most radical, leftist parties—Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)—are excluded from government.
MK, led by former ANC leader and South African President Jacob Zuma, and the EFF, led by firebrand former ANC Youth League chairman Julius Malema, want constitutional changes to allow state control of all forms of wealth, including land, banks, and South Africa’s vast deposits of minerals such as gold and platinum.
This, they say, would allow the government to seize private property, including white-owned farms, for “redistribution to the poor.”
Financial analysts say this would likely result in economic collapse, and cause investors and taxpayers to leave South Africa.
Mr. Zuma, deposed by Mr. Ramaphosa in 2018, said the country’s economy must be “taken back from white monopoly capitalists who are in league with Ramaphosa’s anti-progressive ANC.”
A commission of inquiry found in 2022 that Mr. Zuma appointed allies to loot state-owned enterprises of about $30 billion during his presidential term between 2009 and 2018.
Although he denies wrongdoing, he’s set to stand trial in 2025 for alleged corruption and other financial crimes connected to an arms deal dating back to the mid-1990s.
Mr. Zuma’s brief incarceration in July 2021, after he was found guilty of contempt of court for refusing to testify before the commission of inquiry, ignited the worst public violence seen in democratic South Africa.
More than 300 people were killed and thousands injured as rioting and looting erupted in several cities and towns.
Investigations found that Zuma loyalists instigated the violence, with Mr. Ramaphosa claiming the “insurrection” was aimed at overthrowing his government.
Mr. Malema has been found guilty of hate speech against white citizens on several occasions, and several media investigations have exposed how he allegedly uses money gained through corruption to fund a lavish lifestyle.
He denies the allegations, saying they’re a “plot by white capitalists” to end his political career.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, one of the ANC’s negotiators in talks with the DA and a former deputy president, told The Epoch Times that her party had “no choice” but to exclude the EFF and MK from the government.
“We expect our partners to respect the constitution and rule of law,” she said. “And the ANC has to make sure it surrounds itself with people it can work with.
“We know we’re going to disagree with the DA on a lot but we feel we can talk to them and they clearly feel they can talk to us. It’s also important to say that it’s not the ANC that rejected EFF and MK. They rejected our offer to be part of government.”
The EFF said it wouldn’t be part of an administration that included the “racist” DA.
The ANC also found Mr. Zuma’s condition for entering a coalition, that Mr. Ramaphosa resign as president, to be unacceptable.
Senior DA official Fred Nel told The Epoch Times that he “saluted the courage” of the ANC’s leadership, especially that of Mr. Ramaphosa.
“It takes a lot of discipline for a former liberation movement that is so used to wielding absolute power for so long to accept that it can no longer do so and to sign an agreement to share power with people it has seen as its enemy for so long,” he said.
“We just have to look across the border [to Zimbabwe] to see what happens elsewhere in Africa when a former liberation movement loses popularity.
“It rigs elections and rules by the gun in order to stay in government. It doesn’t negotiate with its political opponents. It kills and jails them.”
Talking to journalists after an ANC meeting on June 14, the party’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, said the new government would “gravitate towards the center.”
A strong indication of this move, and a major concession to the DA, is the ANC’s commitment to stop appointing party loyalists to key public service positions and to give the DA positions in Mr. Ramaphosa’s new cabinet.
“The government of national unity is committed to building a merit-based, non-partisan, and professional public service that puts the people first,” Mr. Steenhuisen said.
“The ANC has agreed to implement many reforms suggested by the DA, including strengthening law enforcement agencies with non-political crime-fighting experts and depoliticizing agencies tasked with combating state-driven corruption.”
The DA made concessions of its own, agreeing not to oppose the flagship ANC policies of black economic empowerment and affirmative action.
“We’ll work together to do what’s best for our economy, but compromises will have to be made,” Mr. Steenhuisen said.
“What’s most important is our shared commitment to the constitution and rule of law.”
However, the exclusion of MK and the EFF, and the inclusion of the DA, in the new government has angered some powerful leftist ANC members and the party’s alliance partners, the Communist Party and trade unions.
“The danger now is that these forces split from the ANC to either join with the EFF and MK, or to form a significant rival to the coalition government,” Sanusha Naidu, a political analyst at the Institute for Global Dialogue in Johannesburg, said.
“My party is now the official opposition in parliament, together with MK,” Mr. Malema told The Epoch Times.
“We are going to continue fighting for the rights of the millions of poor people, and our enemies are the white imperialist, neo-colonialists, and their ANC lapdogs.
“We won’t shut up and this DA–ANC joke government will suffer at our hands.”
“The center is holding, for now, and we’re probably going into a period of stability, but we mustn’t forget that MK and EFF won a quarter of votes cast on May 29,” Ms. Naidu told The Epoch Times.
“They have millions of supporters across South Africa; that’s obvious. If the unity government doesn’t deliver, and deliver fast, you can bet that the masters of chaos and disruption, namely Malema and Zuma, will have a lot to say about it.
“The potential for violence is high.”
She said South Africa needs a “social democrat center” to rebuild the economy.
The ANC and DA also united to prevent the EFF and MK from governing the major provinces of Gauteng, which includes Africa’s financial hub of Johannesburg, and KwaZulu-Natal, home to Africa’s busiest port, Durban.
With the DA again winning the Western Cape region, which it has governed since 2009, the ANC–DA alliance now controls the three provinces responsible for most of South Africa’s GDP.
In the immediate aftermath of the ANC’s loss of its majority in government, a group of the party known as the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) faction called for a “black pact” between the ANC, EFF, MK, and others to freeze the DA out of government.
“Ramaphosa’s rejection of the black pact is going to make him even more enemies within his own party and may well result in an internal revolt,” Ralph Mathekga, a political analyst, said.
“These people see him as a puppet of white capitalists and his alliance with the DA just provides more fuel for them.
“They see Ramaphosa as an elitist who all along has been cooperating with white capital to get richer and richer while the poor have gotten poorer.”
Mr. Ramaphosa left politics in 1996, after playing a leading role in forming South Africa’s first democratic government.
He became one of Africa’s richest businessmen as owner of McDonald’s South Africa; chair of the board at MTN, one of the continent’s biggest telecommunications companies; and a board member at mining group Lonmin.
“There are forces inside and outside the ANC, including some of its biggest alliance partners, like the Communist Party and the unions, who detest Ramaphosa for steering the ANC towards a more moderate outlook,” Ms. Naidu said.
“These forces want collaboration with the EFF and the MK, not with the DA.”
Zweli Mkhize, a powerful member of the ANC’s National Executive Committee, told The Epoch Times: “This pact with the DA will alienate the ANC’s support base. On the other hand, a pact with MK will reunite us.”
Like Mr. Zuma, though, Mr. Mkhize is no friend to Mr. Ramaphosa, who fired him as health minister in 2021 after Mr. Mkhize was linked to corruption over a COVID-19 communications tender.
Ahead of Mr. Ramaphosa’s inauguration on June 19 at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, security forces have been deployed to areas where Mr. Zuma enjoys significant support.
“We’re ready for anything,“ a senior police officer told The Epoch Times. ”We’re monitoring social media in case certain groups begin mobilizing, and we are monitoring paramilitary groups active in KwaZulu-Natal.
“At least one of these has been seen around Zuma’s homestead [in the town of Nkandla].”
