Humbled by a stinging election result, South Africa’s African National Congress was talking to everyone in an effort to form a stable coalition government for Africa’s most advanced economy after it lost its 30-year majority, a top party official said Sunday.
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said the party was open to all negotiations, even with the main opposition Democratic Alliance, which has led the chorus of criticism of the ANC for years but is viewed by many analysts as the most stable coalition option for South Africa, AP reported.
The ANC won just over 40% of the vote in Wednesday’s election to lose its long dominance of South African politics. The ANC remained the biggest party but it means the country will likely have to form a coalition government for the first time since it achieved democracy with the end of the apartheid system in 1994.
The DA won the second most votes with 21% and the two parties would hold a majority together and be able to govern.
That doesn’t mean it will be easy to marry them, with Mbalula conceding that the two were like “oil and water” considering their ideological differences. But he indicated that the ANC could be flexible. The ANC was talking to everyone, Mbalula said, with two other main opposition parties and several smaller ones all in the mix. A coalition could involve several parties to foster unity.
“There is no party we are not going to talk to,” Mbalula said. “We are looking at the scenarios, we are looking at the options.”
The election results were due to be formally declared later Sunday by the Independent Electoral Commission, a rubber-stamping of an outcome that was already clear.
There is some time pressure for coalition talks to progress and for the uncertainty to be minimized given South Africa’s new Parliament needs to sit for the first time and elect a president within 14 days of the election results being declared. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the leader of the ANC, is seeking a second and final term.
“The elections have humbled us, they have brought us where we are,” Mbalula said, adding the ANC respected the will of the South African people. “We have heard them,” he said.
Mbalula said the ANC would not consider the demands by the MK Party of former President Jacob Zuma that Ramaphosa step down as a condition for talks.
“No political party will dictate terms to us, the ANC. They will not … You come to us with that demand, forget (it),” Mbalula said.
Amid many options, the ANC could also join with MK and the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters, although they have been cast as partners that would make investors uneasy. Both have pledged to nationalize parts of South Africa’s economy, including its gold and platinum mines, among the world’s biggest producers.
Peoplesmind
