CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Friday that Parliament will open for his next term on July 18 as he remains engaged in negotiations with other parties to form a Cabinet well before then. form, amid divisions in the new governing coalition. .
Negotiations to finalize the final details of a multi-party government and appoint a cabinet have been going on for two weeks. These talks were marked by disagreements between Ramaphosa’s African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance, the second largest party, over the distribution of ministerial posts and portfolios.
Leaked correspondence between the two former political opponents shows tensions.
In one of the letters, Ramaphosa wrote to DA leader John Steenhuisen, accusing his party of “moving the goalposts” by increasing its requirement from six cabinet positions to eight, thereby jeopardizing the coalition agreement. The DA says the ANC has reneged on a promise to allow it to take control of the key Department of Trade and Industry.
Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen have also had face-to-face meetings in recent days.
The issues underscore analysts’ warnings that a coalition bringing together the ANC and DA to govern Africa’s most industrialized country would be complicated. The ANC was the ruling party and the DA the main opposition and its fiercest critic for more than two decades before the May 29 election, which created an unprecedented situation for South African politics. They have radically different ideologies.
The ANC lost its dominance and the parliamentary majority it had held since the end of the white-minority apartheid system in 1994 in last month’s elections, and has been forced to share power for the first time. It won 40% of the vote to the DA’s 21%.
Although eight smaller parties have also joined the coalition, which is being called a government of national unity, the ANC and the DA are the main players and its success depends on finding common ground.
South African media have reported that the DA may be on the verge of abandoning the power-sharing deal, but ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula – one of his party’s lead negotiators – dispelled it on Friday, writing on social media site . that the parties were “almost ready” with the final agreement. “It will happen as promised,” he added, and it would be “in the best interests of all South Africans.”
South African currency and investor confidence strengthened after the ANC and DA signed a preliminary agreement on June 14 to work together in a coalition. That deal also allowed Ramaphosa to be re-elected by lawmakers for a second term as president just hours later, with cross-party support. .
Both parties had said the coalition would usher in a new era of political unity that would help solve the country’s vast socio-economic problems, including some of the highest rates of inequality and unemployment in the world. But the delay in announcing a cabinet and taking office of a new government has eroded some of the optimism.
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