President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled South Africa’s new coalition cabinet on Sunday, nearly a month after his African National Congress lost its majority for the first time since the end of apartheid 30 years ago.
In a move likely to be welcomed by the markets, the opposition Democratic Alliance, which won 21.8 per cent of the vote in the recent elections, was given six of the 30 ministerial positions and the position of deputy finance minister.
Ramaphosa included eight parties in his cabinet, but the country’s two most radical political groups, Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) which had campaigned on expropriating land, and uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), run by former ANC president Jacob Zuma, were not included.
The rand immediately strengthened to about R18.01 to the dollar after Ramaphosa’s announcement, recovering from the R18.40 it had hit a few days earlier when it looked like the coalition talks with the DA might collapse.
Fierce haggling between the two largest parties led to the DA accusing Ramaphosa of reneging on an offer to let it run the powerful trade and industry ministry, while the ANC in turn accused the DA leadership of high-handedness.
But a late breakthrough emerged on Friday after John Steenhuisen, DA leader, accepted a compromise offer of the agriculture ministry instead — a portfolio he will now hold.
On Sunday night, Ramaphosa appointed five other DA ministers — Siviwe Gwarube takes education, Solly Malatsi communications, Leon Schreiber becomes home affairs minister, Dion George will hold forestry and fisheries, and Dean Macpherson public works.
Others from outside the ANC joining the cabinet include: Inkatha Freedom party (IFP) leader Velinkosini Hlabisa as minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs; Gayton McKenzie of the rightwing Patriotic Alliance, who will now be minister of sports arts and culture; and Pieter Groenewald of Freedom Front Plus, who will oversee prisons.
While Enoch Godongwana remains finance minister, he will now have two deputies, the incumbent David Masondo and the DA’s Ashor Sharupen.
“This is an extraordinary political moment for South Africa. After 30 years of ANC dominance, we now have a cabinet of huge political diversity,” said Richard Calland, political analyst and law professor.
Calland said Ramaphosa had only between a year and 18 months to prove his new cabinet could govern capably, otherwise there was a risk that the mood of optimism in the country would deflate.
“The leaders of both the ANC and DA are taking political risks, especially with their internal party constituencies,” he said.
Gwede Mantashe will remain minister of mineral resources, but the energy part of the portfolio has now been hived off and placed under Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
International relations, a department that led the genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, will be headed by former justice minister Ronald Lamola instead of Naledi Pandor, who lost her seat at the elections.
While the DA had at one stage suggested that it could lay a rightful claim to the deputy presidency, Paul Mashatile retains that role.
Earlier, Helen Zille, DA chair, told the Financial Times that talks between the parties had come “very close” to falling apart.
“We were on the brink of walking away. It was clear that the ANC wanted us to get just enough to keep them in power,” she said. “Our job is not to rescue the ANC, it’s to rescue South Africa.”
A “statement of intent” signed between the parties on June 14 said the president retained the prerogative of ministerial appointments “in consultation” with the party leaders.
Zille said the near-breakdown of talks led the DA to question whether being in government would work at all. “We had to ask ourselves, if they are treating us this way now, what will it be like when we are in government?”
The rocky start to the coalition has raised fears that the government may not last.
One senior ANC official told the FT that the DA had attempted what he called a “snatch and grab” of plum positions. The DA had been brought back to the table, the ANC official said, by powerful business donors who had been terrified of seeing the talks collapse.
The negotiations had exposed the lack of trust on both sides, which would be hard to bridge now in government, analysts said.
Peter Attard Montalto, managing director of consultancy Krutham, said the markets would rally on the cabinet announcement and then on news of a policy platform, once the parties were able to agree on that. But he warned that the DA “will struggle to make early jobs-related gains and are not in core economic lever positions”.
Attard Montalto said the ANC had already been moving in a pro-business direction in the past five years, using market solutions to help fix the country’s power utility Eskom, which has not had power blackouts for more than 90 days.
But he said there were still risks of the unity government splintering over internal party frictions, though probably not before local elections in 2026.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
