(Pretoria) South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, re-elected for a second term, but forced to form a coalition government after a bitter setback for his party in the last legislative elections, underlined Wednesday during his inauguration that the country is entering “a new era “.
At 71, Mr Ramaphosa was reappointed by Parliament last week. But during the legislative elections on May 29, the African National Congress (ANC), in power since the end of apartheid, lost its absolute majority in Parliament for the first time, obtaining only 40% of the votes.
Sanctioned at the polls in a climate of growing poverty, endemic unemployment and corruption cases, the historic party now only holds 159 of the 400 parliamentary seats. And the head of state re-elected for five years will have to form in the coming days a coalition government unprecedented in thirty years of democracy in the country.
“The formation of a government of national unity is a moment of great significance. This is the start of a new era,” Cyril Ramaphosa said after taking the oath of office in a grand ceremony in the capital Pretoria.
“I, Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, do swear that I will be faithful to the Republic of South Africa and that I will obey, observe, defend and preserve the Constitution,” he solemnly declared at the seat of government.
Under a cold southern winter sun, guests in traditional costumes or evening dresses warmed with a coat were welcomed in the morning by a show by local artists.
In a dark suit, Mr. Ramaphosa walked up the red-carpeted steps of the Union Buildings holding his wife’s hand.
Around twenty heads of state and government made the trip. The king of the Zulus, the largest national ethnic group, was present as well as former South African president Thabo Mbeki, the widow of the country’s first black president Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and the wife of the last deceased white president Frederik de Klerk, Elita Georgiades.
The swearing-in concluded with 21 cannon shots and the national anthem played while army helicopters unfurled South African flags in the sky.
ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa became head of state following the resignation of Jacob Zuma in 2018, before being elected in 2019.
Speculation is rife about the portfolios that will have to be ceded by the ANC in view of the formation of the next government. And according to specialists, the hardest part for the re-elected president is yet to come.
“It is difficult to predict what the government will look like,” said independent political analyst Leslie Dikeni to AFP, who considers that it will be difficult for the ANC to cede key ministries to the opposition without provoking a uproar in its own ranks.
The challenge, according to political expert Daniel Silke, will be “to what extent the ANC, as part of a coalition, will be prepared to change by taking into account the political orientations” of the other parties.
The leading opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), a liberal party still widely perceived as white and holding 87 seats in the Assembly, responded to Mr. Ramaphosa’s call to form a “government of national unity “. As do the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and two other small parties.
“We have no time to waste, 30 million people in the country are trapped in poverty,” DA leader John Steenhuisen, who advocates liberalization of the tax, told the press on the sidelines of the ceremony. ‘economy.
The left-wing radicals of the Economic Freedom Fighters of the turbulent Julius Malema (39 MPs) and the uMkhonto weSizwe party of the now ineligible ex-president Jacob Zuma (58 MPs) have for their part come together in recent days in the common promise to “crush” the “white-led” government alliance.