By Kouthar Sambo
The African National Congress (ANC) leaders Cyril Ramaphosa and Paul Mashatile were in the first group of ten newly elected members of Parliament to be sworn in at the first sitting of the National Assembly in Cape Town on Friday, 14 June (2024).
This comes after more than 300 Members of Parliament (MPs) took the oath before the election of the speaker and the president. After a member is elected president, he or she will no longer be an MP. Chief Justice Raymond Zondo was chairperson for the first sitting of the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, the ANC and the Democratic Alliance (DA) have reached a deal to form the Government of National Unity (GNU), which will include the Patriotic Alliance (PA) and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
Speaking on VOC’s PM Drive show on Friday, a political analyst, Tessa Dooms, said the move can be perceived as a “coalition government with an extended purpose.”
“The government of national unity usually has a purpose that is extra electoral, and this is very much an electoral arrangement because the ANC and the DA help each other by giving each other 60% together at a national level,” explained Dooms.
However, by extending this to others like the IFP and the PA, remarked Dooms, they have managed to secure two provinces that the ANC have lost – being Gauteng, Kwazulu-Natal (KZN), and the Northern Cape.
“This is all about securing the provinces in real life, and so this was an extended purpose coalition, but it is ultimately a deal between the ANC and the DA and roping in partners to help it secure power,” clarified Dooms.
This is still a developing story as VOC News will continue to break the latest developments.
Photo: VOCfm
