President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa has opined that his country will be better with a government of national unity, declaring that the governing African National Congress (ANC) will invite other political parties to form the governance arrangement that will allow for share of power, a promise coming after a poor electoral outing that saw the party lose its majority in parliament for the first time in 30 years.
Ramaphosa who is the leader of the ANC that has been in power since 1994 when the racist system of apartheid was brought to an end acknowledged grievances of South Africans and called for a national dialogue to help rebuild social cohesion.
He spoke late on Thursday after the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) held a marathon meeting in Johannesburg.
Political parties that won parliamentarian positions are expected to form alliance before the National Assembly convenes to elect the country’s president.
Heritage Times HT reports that under South Africa’s proportional representation system, for a government to have a guaranteed majority it would need to be formed of parties which together got more than 50% of the vote.
The ANC however fell short of this after taking a 40% share, with the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) getting 22%, the MK party of former President Jacob Zuma won 15% and the radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) 9%.
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“We agreed to invite political parties to form a government of national unity as the best option to move our country forward,” Mr Ramaphosa said after the meeting.
“In establishing a government of national unity, we will be drawing on an experience with which South Africans are familiar and which served our country well at a time of great difficulty.”
He was referring to South Africa’s first democratic government, formed in 1994, which had the ANC’s Nelson Mandela as president working with his former enemies in the National Party, which had implemented apartheid.
The ANC faces a difficult task as the next three biggest parties represent starkly different ideological and economic programmes.
Ramaphosa however said such differences would not “preclude the possibility of working with any party so long as it is in the public interest” and in keeping with a set of basic principles, including those of respecting the constitution and rule of law.
Analysts say taking this broad approach could allow the ANC to avoid choosing a coalition partner that may be unpopular with its base, or at least appease some members before attempting a narrower coalition if the national unity talks failed.
It has already held “constructive discussions” with DA, the EFF and three smaller parties.
Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party has refused to accept the election result or join a coalition as long as Mr Ramaphosa remains president.
But it issued a statement late on Thursday saying it had held an initial engagement with the ANC and a meeting would follow shortly.
Mr Ramaphosa said the ANC had appointed a five-member task team to approach all parties that had stated their intention to advance the interests of the South African people.
