Conflict in South Africa's coalition government is 'not catastrophic,' says major party leader

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Conflict is likely among partners in South Africa's new coalition government but that won't be “catastrophic” for its hopes of turning around the country, the leader of the second biggest political party said Thursday.

John Steenhuisen's Democratic Alliance joined a coalition government led by the long-ruling African National Congress against all expectations after May's national election, making staunch foes from either side of the South African political spectrum partners in government.

Analysts predicted it would be a difficult working relationship — and Steenhuisen called it “a marriage of inconvenience” for Africa's most advanced economy, which is burdened by problems of poverty, inequality, unemployment and failing state-run businesses.

Steenhuisen said that there would likely be many moments of disagreement between his center-right DA and the left-leaning ANC over the next five years of the parliamentary term to end South Africa's “deep crisis,” and that should be accepted.

“Conflict over policy ... is not necessarily an existential threat to the government," Steenhuisen said in a lunchtime speech to a largely elderly audience at a plush sports club in Cape Town. “There will be conflict. There will be differences in policy.”

The ANC and the DA came together along with eight other smaller parties to form what's been called a government of national unity after weeks of painstaking negotiations following the May 29 election. The historic agreement was brokered after the long-dominant ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of the apartheid system of racial segregation in 1994, forcing it to find coalition partners to stay in government. It put South Africa in uncharted political waters.

The coalition government was finally formed at the end of June and faces the challenge of reigning in South Africa's desperate unemployment rate of 32%, the highest in the world outside of a war zone. South Africa's economy has hardly grown over the last decade, and Steenhuisen, the former main opposition leader who is now the minister of agriculture, said his party had a singular focus on those issues in government.

“Economic growth and job creation. Growth and jobs. Me and my party are not going to let anything get in the way of that,” he said.

The conflict Steenhuisen spoke of between the DA and ANC could be seen on Friday if President Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC leader, signs an education bill into law that the DA is strongly opposed to, as Ramaphosa has said he will.

Steenhuisen said his party would take the government it is part of to court over the law if Ramaphosa signs it and accused the ANC of “riding roughshod” over its coalition partners.

The DA is also deeply opposed to a national health law that was introduced before the election that will effectively make the government the sole procurer of healthcare. Critics, including the DA, say it will wipe out the private healthcare business instead of improving public healthcare. The DA is also committed to challenging that in court, Steenhuisen said, another issue where the two main parties that hold the fate of the coalition are at loggerheads.

But Steenhuisen said there was also “a long list” of policies the ANC and DA have agreed on in the 2 1/2 months since the coalition government was formed, mostly with regards to reforming an economy that is meant to be a leader in Africa and for the wider developing world but had just 1.9% GDP growth in 2022 and 0.6% last year.

Steenhuisen said Ramaphosa and the ANC had “no better ally than the Democratic Alliance" when it came to economic reforms that would create jobs and fight poverty.