ANC wants all parties to govern

South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) is proposing a government of national unity (GNU), which means the country could be governed by all of its political parties.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced this proposal on Thursday evening.

The ANC, for the first time since the fall of apartheid, failed to garner enough votes to form a majority government in South Africa’s elections last week.

The party’s results fell from 57,5% of the vote in 2019’s elections to 40% last week.

The race for a possible coalition with either the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA), the Jacob Zuma-led uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, or the radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has thus commenced.

Popular opinion has been that an ANC-DA marriage would stabilise the markets, while a coalition with either the MK party or the EFF would not compromise the govement’s domestic and foreign policy orientation as they share similar ideologies.

But it is clear that the ANC wants every party that won parliamentary seats to be part of South Africa’s next government.

“We are committed to ensuring that a government of national unity has the means and the ability to build an inclusive economy, to create jobs, to end corruption, to tackle crime and to improve the provision of services to our people,” Ramaphosa said on Thursday.

The ANC proposal steers it away from a coalition with only the DA, which has so far been resisted by former minister and veteran Lindiwe Sisulu, among others.

“We are ideologically at variance with the DA. I cannot imagine having to drag people who do not have similar issues and insights into our problems and being able to take the country forward,” she said in an interview with the SABC on Tuesday.

ANC secretary general Ace Magashule has, however, told the media: “We are talking to everyone.”

In the meantime, a few ANC members spoke out against a DA coalition on Friday morning ahead of an ANC meeting.

It is unclear whether the MK party would accept the proposal for a GNU, given its condition that Ramaphosa step aside.

A GNU would also force a working relationship between the DA and its sworn ‘enemy number one’, the EFF.

DA leader John Steenhuisen has said: “We will have to open up the process to look at what we can do to be responsible and mature South Africans and lead to a situation where we can have stability, growth, and respect for the constitution and the rule of law, and a system that will end up working better for the people of South Africa.”