South African President Cyril Ramaphosa reached a coalition agreement between his African National Congress (ANC) party and the former opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party shortly before the vote in parliament on Friday.
John Steenhuisen, a leading DA politician, said in Cape Town that a “new chapter” was beginning in South Africa after two weeks of intensive negotiations.
The declaration to form a government of national unity was signed stating that the coalition, which also includes other parties, is in the interests of all South Africans.
After an election defeat, the ruling ANC party failed to gain an absolute majority for the first time in the country’s democratic history.
The ANC, the party of former anti-apartheid fighter Nelson Mandela, suffered a major loss of power in the parliamentary elections on May 29. It is the first time in thirty years that it has to form a coalition government.
