South African president says new coalition government is united in tackling unemployment and poverty

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa opened a new parliamentary term Thursday, nearly two months after an historic election result reshaped the country's politics and led to the formation of an unprecedented multiparty government coalition.

Ramaphosa's speech to lawmakers at the City Hall in Cape Town — a replacement venue after a fire gutted the Parliament building two years ago — marked the official start of business for the new coalition, which brings at least 10 parties together to govern Africa's most industrialized country.

Ramaphosa said that despite the political differences of his diverse government, it was united in tackling South Africa's three biggest problems: an unemployment crisis, crippling poverty and inequality, and the failure of state institutions that have been eroded by corruption and neglect that's largely been blamed on Ramaphosa's own African National Congress party.

The May 29 election was a landmark for South Africa as voters frustrated with those three issues and others delivered the worst result ever for the ANC, which lost the majority it had held for 30 years since the end of the apartheid system of racial segregation and white minority rule.

“Despite the achievements of 30 years of democracy ... millions of South Africans remain poor, unemployed and they live in a highly unequal society,” Ramaphosa said, conceding, as he's done previously, to some failures by the ANC.

“The circumstances of South Africa today require that we act together,” Ramaphosa added.

Ramaphosa's address began what South Africa calls “the seventh administration” — just the seventh government to be formed since the country was freed from the racist system of apartheid in 1994 and people of all races were allowed to vote.

The speech was largely a call for unity across the political divide and was generally met by applause by lawmakers, an unsurprising result given so many of the parties represented in Parliament are now part of the governing coalition, including the main Democratic Alliance that was once the ANC's fiercest political foe.

It means South Africa also has a new official opposition, the newly-founded MK Party led by Jacob Zuma, a former South African president and ANC leader who has turned against it and emerged as the fiercest critic of Ramaphosa.

MK lawmakers generally were subdued in their first sitting in Parliament opposite Ramaphosa and the new government, as were members of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters, who have struck an opposition alliance with MK. Zuma wasn't present after he was disqualified from standing as a member of Parliament because of a criminal conviction and prison sentence in 2021 for contempt of court.

Ramaphosa, once a political protege of Nelson Mandela, is beginning his second and final five-year term, although the humbling election result for his once-dominant ANC meant that he had to rely on cross-party support to be reelected president by lawmakers last month.

His challenge will be to keep a broad coalition with marked political differences together in the face of steep problems in a country meant to embody the hopes of the African continent. South Africa's sky-high unemployment rate is 32% — the worst in the world. It's considered the most unequal country in the world by wealth distribution, while its economy has stagnated for more than a decade.

To tackle that, Ramaphosa said that his coalition government, dubbed a “government of national unity,” would prioritize growth and job development by creating new opportunities in almost every sector, including mining, agriculture, small business and green energy, while eliminating corruption and bureaucratic red tape.

He offered little policy detail in a speech of broad strokes designed to pull the country together after a fiercely contested and divisive election put it in uncharted waters.

“Parties cooperating is quite an historic moment for our country,” Ramaphosa said. "“We share a commitment to reconcile our nation.”

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