Good news about South Africa’s coalition government

South Africa’s fractious coalition government survived after the second-largest party opted against leaving following its ultimatum to President Cyril Ramaphosa for firing one of its members from his executive, while saying it will boycott his national dialogue.

Ramaphosa set up a panel that includes business leaders, actors and the captain of its national rugby team to guide the talks on the country’s development path amid a weak economy. The project is set to cost about R740 million.

Tensions within the so-called government of national unity reached new heights this week, when Ramaphosa dismissed the DA’s Andrew Whitfield from his deputy trade minister’s post for travelling abroad without permission.

The Democratic Alliance accused the president of double standards because members of his African National Congress retained their posts despite being implicated in corruption.

The furore follows a litany of disagreements between the two largest parties in Africa’s most industrialised nation, including an impasse over the national budget. The DA will also vote against budget allocations to some government departments, party leader John Steenhuisen said.

“The DA sees no further point in wasting our breath in endless talk shops with the ANC,” he told a briefing in Cape Town on Saturday.

“It’s clear that the dialogue will be reduced to nothing more than a waste of time and money to distract from ANC failures, which explains why they are so obsessed with it.”

South Africa’s economic growth rate has averaged less than 1% a year in the past decade, contributing to an unemployment rate of 32.9% and rampant poverty. It’s the most unequal country globally, World Bank data shows.

The ANC expects the national dialogue to be successful despite the DA’s absence and sees the party’s decision not to support some departments’ budgets as an attempt to disrupt the GNU, ANC’s spokeswoman, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, said on broadcaster eNCA.

Whitfield conceded that he had transgressed and offered an apology to Ramaphosa. The president asked the party to provide him with a replacement for the position.

The markets are likely to welcome the move by the DA, which is viewed as business-friendly. The nation’s benchmark stock index has risen 20% since the May 29, 2024 vote, which saw the ANC lose its parliamentary majority, while the yield on the government’s 10-year rand-denominated debt is near a three-year low.

The GNU holds about 72% of the seats in parliament and 51% excluding its second-biggest member. This means that while the GNU could retain power without DA, passing laws will become more difficult.

The DA won’t leave the government because that “would have opened South Africa up to the coalition of chaos and destruction and would have led to more disastrous consequences,” Steenhuisen said. “If the ANC wants to kick the DA out for fighting against corruption, well, so be it.”

The DA is set to hold an elective conference this year, and it isn’t yet clear whether Steenhuisen will stand for re-election as party leader.

Ramaphosa was set to travel to Spain on Friday but cancelled his trip in anticipation of the DA’s decision, delegating to International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola, the presidency said in a statement.