South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Says Parliament Will Open on July 18

In Summary

• South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Parliament will open for its next term on July 18.
• Ramaphosa is negotiating with other parties to form a Cabinet amid rifts in the new governing coalition.
• Disagreements between Ramaphosa's African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) over ministerial positions have caused tensions.
• Letters between Ramaphosa and DA leader John Steenhuisen revealed disputes over Cabinet positions.
• The ANC and DA have starkly different ideologies, complicating the coalition government.
• The ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time, winning 40% of the vote, while the DA won 21%.
• The coalition includes eight smaller parties, but the ANC and DA are key players.
• Initial optimism following the coalition agreement has been tempered by delays in announcing a Cabinet.

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Friday that Parliament will open for its next term on July 18. He is currently locked in negotiations with other parties to form a Cabinet well before then, amidst rifts in the new governing coalition.

The talks to finalize a multi-party government and appoint a Cabinet have been ongoing for two weeks, marked by disagreements between Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA), the second biggest party, over the division of ministerial positions and portfolios. Correspondence between the two former political foes has been leaked, showing the tensions.

In one of the letters, Ramaphosa wrote to DA leader John Steenhuisen accusing his party of “moving the goalposts” by increasing its demand from six Cabinet positions to eight, thereby jeopardizing the coalition agreement. The DA claims the ANC reneged on a promise to allow it to take control of the important Department of Trade and Industry.

Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen have also had face-to-face meetings in recent days. These issues underline the warnings from analysts that a coalition bringing the ANC and DA together to govern Africa’s most industrialized country would be complicated. The ANC had been the ruling party and the DA the main opposition and its fiercest critic for more than 20 years before the May 29 election created an unprecedented situation for South African politics. They have starkly different ideologies.

The ANC lost its dominance and the parliamentary majority it had held ever since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994 in last month’s election and has been forced to share power for the first time. It won 40% of the vote, and the DA won 21%.

Although eight smaller parties have also joined the coalition, which is being called a government of national unity, the ANC and the DA are the key players, and its success relies on them finding common ground.

South African media has reported that the DA may be on the verge of walking away from the power-sharing agreement. However, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula, one of his party’s lead negotiators, moved to dispel that on Friday by writing on the social media site X that the parties were “almost done” with the final agreement. “It will be done as promised,” he added, and would be “in the best interests of all South Africans.”

South Africa’s currency and investor confidence strengthened after the ANC and DA signed a preliminary agreement to work together in a coalition on June 14. That deal also allowed Ramaphosa to be reelected by lawmakers for a second term as president just hours later with cross-party support.

Both parties had said the coalition would be a new era of political unity that would help solve the country’s vast socioeconomic problems, which include some of the highest rates of inequality and unemployment in the world. However, the delay in announcing a Cabinet and a new government getting to work has eroded some of the optimism.