South African President Cyril Ramaphosa opened a new parliament on Thursday, nearly two months after a historic election result that reshaped the country's politics and led to the formation of an unprecedented multi-party coalition government.
Mr. Ramaphosa's speech to lawmakers at Cape Town City Hall - a replacement venue after the fire that gutted the parliament building two years ago - marked the official start of operations for the new coalition, which brings together at least 10 parties to govern Africa's most industrialised country.
Mr Ramaphosa said that despite his government's political differences, it was united in tackling South Africa's three main problems: an unemployment crisis, crushing poverty and inequality, and the failure of state institutions that have been eroded by corruption and neglect for which Mr Ramaphosa's party, the African National Congress, has been largely responsible.
The May 29 election marked a turning point for South Africa, as voters frustrated by these three issues and more 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, characterized by racial segregation and white minority rule.
"Despite the achievements of 30 years of democracy, millions of South Africans remain poor, unemployed and live in a deeply unequal society," Ramaphosa said, acknowledging, as he has done previously, some of the ANC's failures. "The circumstances of South Africa today demand that we act together," Ramaphosa added.
Mr. Ramaphosa's speech marked the start of what South Africa calls "the seventh administration", the seventh government formed since the country was liberated from the racist apartheid system in 1994 and people of all races were allowed to vote.
The speech was largely a call for unity across political lines and was generally met with applause from lawmakers, not surprising given that many of the parties represented in parliament are now part of the governing coalition, including the Democratic Alliance, which was once the ANC's most bitter political foe.
This means that 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 turned against the ANC and became Mr Ramaphosa's fiercest critic.
MK MPs were generally quiet in their first sitting in parliament against Mr Ramaphosa and the new government, as were members of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party, which has an opposition alliance with MK. Mr. Zuma was not present because he was disqualified as a member of parliament due to a criminal conviction and prison sentence handed down in 2021 for contempt of court.
Mr Ramaphosa, a former political protégé of Nelson Mandela, is beginning his second and final five-year term, although a humiliating election result for his once-dominant ANC party forced him to rely on cross-party support to be re-elected president by lawmakers last month.
His challenge will be to hold together a broad coalition with sharp political differences in the face of serious problems in a country that is supposed to embody the hopes of the African continent. South Africa's unemployment rate, at 32%, is the highest in the world. It is considered the most unequal country in the world in terms of wealth distribution, while its economy has stagnated for more than a decade.
To address this situation, Mr. Ramaphosa said his coalition government, called the "government of national unity", would prioritise growth and job creation by creating new opportunities in almost all sectors, including mining, agriculture, small businesses and green energy, while eliminating corruption and red tape.
He gave few policy details in a broad-brush speech aimed at uniting the country after a hard-fought and divisive election that put it in an unprecedented position.
“The inter-party cooperation is a historic moment for our country,” Ramaphosa said. “We share a commitment to reconcile our nation.”
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