South Africa forms a coalition government, President Ramaphosa names portfolios

Cyril Ramaphosa (in the centre) (Photo/X@MYANC)

Pretoria [South Africa], July 1 (ANI): South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the formation of a new cabinet and named 32 ministerial positions of the government after weeks of deadlock, Al Jazeera reported.

Ramaphosa's announcement saw 20 of the 32 posts going to the African National Congress over a month after elections stripped the party of its majority by the formation of a new governing coalition. Another six seats will be filled by the Democratic Alliance (DA) party, with the remainder split among a crowd of smaller coalition parties.

Ramasopha was forced into the unprecedented power-sharing arrangement with DA and others after his party, a dominant force in South African politics since the end of the apartheid era, lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994 in elections on May 29.

Accustomed to comfortable victories of more than 60 per cent, the ANC won just 40 per cent of the votes as the citizens turned away from the party amid frustration over poverty, poor services, and some of the world's highest rates of inequality and unemployment. The rival DA took the second-largest share with 21 per cent.

The President said that the new government will prioritise those issues. "We have shown that there are no problems that are too difficult or too intractable that they cannot be solved through dialogue," he said.

Steenhuisen, in a statement following the announcement, said: "We look forward to being part of a new era in South Africa's democratic journey, and to bringing real and tangible change to the millions of citizens who voted for it."

It took over a month of complex political manoeuvring, and concessions from the ANC, to stitch together the government. It maintained its hold on the ministry of trade and industry, a key portfolio that the DA also sought. ANC's Paul Mashatile will also continue as Deputy President. DA leader John Steenhuisen was appointed minister of agriculture.

The coalition's performance depends on how they keep their ideological differences aside. The DA, ANC's enemy party, wants to scrap some of the ANC's black empowerment programmes and it also opposes the ANC's desire to expropriate land. (ANI)

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