South Africa’s Governing Alliance Emerges as the New Parliament Convenes
South Africa’s Governing Alliance Emerges as the New Parliament Convenes
The Facts
On Friday, South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) announced an agreement to form a coalition government with its main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) after losing its 30-year parliamentary majority in a recent election.
The coalition marks a historic shift in South African politics, which has never had a national-level coalition government, and has seen ANC in power since the end of apartheid in 1994.
The Spin
Hopefully this coalition will mark the start of a fruitful new chapter in South Africa's history. This move beyond divisive party politics will allow the government to focus more on collaboration and problem solving. This coalition will bring previously politically and racially divided parties together to better tackle the issues facing the country, and will also bring in more international investment, and economic stability.
South Africa's coalition government is likely to fail. The participating parties have numerous incompatibilities, public skepticism and distrust in the government are high, and the differing ideologies of the parties leaves the coalition to be ripe for leadership conflicts and internal divisions, and policy paralysis. The formation of this alliance has been shaky, and the future is uncharted and unknown.
