S.African Parliament Meets As ANC Nears Coalition Deal - UrduPoint

Source: UrduPoint

Cape Town, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Jun, 2024) South Africa's newly elected parliament met Friday and was expected to re-elect President Cyril Ramaphosa to form an unprecedented coalition government as his humbled ANC raced to cobble together a deal.

The African National Congress leader had called for a government of national unity after his party lost its absolute majority in last month's general election, but two major leftist parties shunned the deal.

Instead, according to ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula, the government would "gravitate to the centre" -- backed by the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA), the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and several smaller parties.

Ramaphosa is now expected to win the secret ballot of MPs to confirm his re-election, but talks on a written coalition agreement that can be signed by the parties were going right down to the wire.

"This morning at 2:00 am, we thought we had a final settlement and agreement, but this morning a few issues have arisen, and they are just trying to sort those out," Helen Zille, chairwoman of the DA's national council, told SABC public television.

"There's one paragraph still outstanding. And I hope that we will take it over the line."

.. as insurance," said author and political analyst Susan Booysen, amid reports that some ANC MPs may vote against their leader.

"He needs that buffer," she told AFP.

But the left-wing EFF of former ANC youth leader Julius Malema, who wants to nationalise land and some privately-owned businesses, will not join the administration.

Malema told reporters on Thursday his members would vote for the ANC candidate for president if they were promised the speaker or deputy speaker position in parliament.

"We are against the inclusion of the DA and the Freedom Front Plus, because that represents imperialism, represents racism and white supremacy, represents backwardness."

The Freedom Front Plus is a right-wing party, seeking an autonomous Afrikaner homeland.

For the DA, Zille said that her party and the ANC had agreed that the coalition would only be for parties who respect the constitution, and implied that this does not include the EFF.

"This is an agreement between constitutionalists, between people who want to protect the constitution, and we know what the EFF thinks of the constitution," she told SABC.

Once described by Mandela as one of the most gifted leaders of his generation, Ramaphosa played a key role in the negotiations that brought an end to apartheid in the early 1990s.

Upon taking the reins of the country, he promised a new dawn for South Africa. But critics say he has disappointed.

Under his watch unemployment has reached an almost record high, pushing the ANC towards its worst election result ever.

The party's latest tilt towards the centre, with a coalition supported by centre-right and right-wing groups, might further hamper his popularity, particularly among ANC ranks.

The broad-church party is a progressive outfit of the left that has overseen welfare and economic empowerment programmes for poor, black South Africans.