have agreed to form a coalition in which the former liberation movement and the pro-business party will set aside their rivalry in a historic governance pact.’s centrist preferences ultimately won out over more left-wing factions of the ANC that wanted to strike a deal with breakaway parties that back nationalisation and seizing land from white farmers. The deal was struck amid criticisms that the DA favours the interests of South Africa’s white minority, something it denies.
“Today, the DA becomes a party of national government,” Mr Steenhuisen said, after the legislators were sworn in at a convention centre in Cape Town, while the parliament buildings are still being renovated after a fire in 2022. Negotiations will continue after Friday on policies and cabinet positions, Mr Steenhuisen said, adding that the two-week period after election results that the constitution mandates for the election of a president was not long enough to reach a full coalition agreement.
The inclusion of the IFP, which received 3.8 per cent of the vote, is seen as a way to deflect criticism of the ANC for working with the white-led DA. The PA, led by the self-described reformed bank robber Gayton McKenzie, got 2 per cent of the vote and has its support base in South Africa’s Coloured communities.
Meanwhile, the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters, who were sworn in as MPs in their trademark red overalls, some wearing hard hats and rubber boots, were among the parties that turned down Mr Ramaphosa’s call to join a “Government of National Unity” .