Key Issues Facing the New Government

Former opposition parties will hold 12 of the 32 ministers in a broad coalition that includes the center-right Democratic Alliance (DA), the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and other smaller parties.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has been leading difficult negotiations to balance the demands of his party and its new allies for key ministerial positions and to negotiate divergent views to develop a common policy agenda on the economy and other pressing issues.

These are some of the main challenges and priorities the government will face in establishing a so-called Government of National Unity (GNU).

– Poverty and unemployment –

South Africa’s economy is characterized by slow economic growth and record unemployment. Both the ANC and the centrist DA, the two largest parties in the new government, consider these issues to be priorities.

Millions of people live in poverty in a country where 33 per cent of the 62 million population are unemployed – significantly more than when the ANC came to power – and 28 million rely on social welfare payments to survive.

In the GNU statement, job creation, investment and fiscal stability were among the goals listed as remedies for a weakened economy that has frustrated South Africans and undermined the ANC’s popularity.

– The foreign policy –

Agreeing on a foreign policy framework could be a contentious issue within the GNU, given the war in Gaza and other foreign policy flashpoints.

Ramaphosa and his party officials have been wearing keffiyeh headscarves for months as a show of solidarity with the Palestinians, whom they have long supported.

Under the ANC government, South Africa has filed a case with the International Court of Justice alleging that the Israeli military operation in Gaza launched in response to an October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants amounts to “genocide”.

Even though the DA supports a two-state solution, many South Africans accuse the party of being pro-Israel.

“One side’s genocide can be another side’s freedom fight,” DA leader John Steenhuisen said earlier this year in an interview with the state broadcaster.

The two parties clashed last year over the ANC’s close diplomatic ties with Moscow, with which it has historic ties dating back to the anti-apartheid struggle.

The DA has taken legal action to force the ANC government to arrest Vladimir Putin if the Russian president were to attend a planned summit in the country.

– No water, no electricity –

South Africa is the most industrialized country on the continent, but access to basic services such as water, electricity and garbage collection is a recurring source of dissatisfaction for tens of millions of residents.

Due to shortages in energy production and frequent failures of aging power plants, the nation has suffered for years from economically crippling rolling blackouts that, in the worst cases, last up to 12 hours a day.

Political parties that have been forming coalition governments at the local level for several years often blame the lack of services.

– Rapes and murders –

According to police statistics, there were almost 84 murders a day in South Africa between October and December.

Outside of war-torn countries, South Africa’s per capita homicide rate is one of the highest in the world.

Among other crimes, the broad coalition government has made gender-based violence a priority in a country where, according to official figures, a rape is reported every 11 minutes.

The DA has proposed dividing police powers among the country’s nine provinces to combat crippling crime, which would represent a break with the ANC’s current centralized national-level police power structure.