Ramaphosa won’t resign despite historic ANC electoral loss, seeks coalition with DA
President Cyril Ramaphosa does not intend to resign as ANC leader despite leading the party to the historic loss of an electoral majority it has held for 30 years, the Mail & Guardian has learned.
Though he is bitterly disappointed that the ANC barely polled 40 percent, sources close to Ramaphosa said he reasons that “much is at stake” and South Africa is in need of political maturity that can provide stable governance after voters tore up the odds by making his predecessor Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party the third biggest in the country.
The only route to that stability, for Ramaphosa and his closest allies within the ANC, is through a working arrangement with the Democratic Alliance.
The party’s Gauteng leadership and younger members of the ANC national executive committee have thus far favoured the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) as a coalition partner but this thinking has lost some of its currency with a far lower share of the vote than in 2019.
Several high-ranking ANC sources have confirmed to the Mail & Guardian that they are advocating such a tie-up to create a centrist government, and would not countenance any concessions to Zuma’s MK party.
Some suggested there is an in-principle agreement between the two biggest parties that they will work together.
“There is alignment. It is a question of ironing out details,” one said.
