DA leader John Steenhuisen, DA MP Siviwe Gwarube and ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa.(GCIS)
The agreement that formalised South Africa’s new government of national unity (GNU) was on the brink of collapse less than an hour before the new Parliament met for the first time on Friday, after the DA rejected the ANC’s last-minute changes.
Following 24 hours of high political drama during which the final agreement was sent back and forth between ANC and DA negotiators, and eventually between President Cyril Ramaphosa and DA leader John Steenhuisen, South Africa’s political landscape and government was completely reshaped:
But shortly after 09:00 there was still uncertainty about what the final deal between the ANC and DA – called the Statement of Intent of the 2024 Government of National Unity – would look like. The parties’ negotiators were seemingly engaged in a game of brinkmanship which could have seen the deal disintegrate after negotiations late on Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday seemed to deliver finality.
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