CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 6, (AP): South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was meeting with senior officials of the African National Congress on Thursday to decide how to go about forming a government after the party lost its 30-year grip on power and left a post-election deadlock.
The party’s National Executive Committee was meeting in Johannesburg to work through a split within the party’s ranks over which direction to take. ANC lost its long-held majority in last week’s vote but remained the biggest party, and now needs some form of agreement with others to run Africa’s most industrialized country.
ANC has indicated it’s leaning toward a government of national unity that would bring together many of the political parties in a broad agreement, rather than a direct coalition with the main opposition, the Democratic Alliance, or DA.
“We want to bring everybody on board,” ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said before Thursday’s meeting, which was likely to last all day. Mbalula said a government of national unity was being proposed to the NEC to decide on, but he expected there to be debate and disagreement.
ANC is the party that was once led by Nelson Mandela and freed South Africa from the apartheid system of white minority rule by winning the country’s historic first all-race vote in 1994. It had seen a gradual decline in its support over the last 20 years as South Africa struggles with high levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
The National Executive Committee that includes more than 80 of the ANC’s top officials is expected to be the body to decide on which direction it will take.