Parties agree on South Africa unity government
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 June 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) and the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) have agreed to form a government of national unity, along with two smaller opposition parties. We look at the state of politics in South Africa as the once mighty African National Congress is forced to share power. Also in the programme: The first match of the European football championships has begun - so how strong are politically nationalist feelings among the fans? And we'll hear from the German comedian who's just had an audience with the Pope. (Photo: The DA and ANC parties have been bitter rivals for many years. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Newsar from the BBC World Service coming to live from our |
| 0:07.5 | studios in Central London I'm Julian Marshall. |
| 0:11.0 | Serial Ramaposa is said to be re-elected president by the South African Parliament, but now he |
| 0:17.5 | heads a government of national unity. |
| 0:20.0 | His ANC party, which has ruled South Africa for the past 30 years, was forced into an alliance |
| 0:25.7 | after losing its parliamentary majority in recent elections. |
| 0:30.1 | The ANC's main coalition partner is the center-right Democratic Alliance, which came second in the |
| 0:36.6 | elections and whose leader John Steinhoushen said the agreement would improve the economy and governance in South Africa. |
| 0:45.0 | Given the fact that the voters of South Africa in this last election chose not to reward any party with its own majority, then I expect us to find each other and work |
| 0:55.7 | together to be able to form a stable government and we believe that the government |
| 1:00.9 | of national unity the document of which we've signed this morning, |
| 1:05.0 | is South Africa's best opportunity to get stability, good, clean accountable governance, |
| 1:11.0 | but also a group of people who prize constitutionalism and the Bill of Rights |
| 1:17.0 | as sacrosanct and who will work together to protect our constitutional democracy from assaults. |
| 1:24.0 | John Steen-Hosen, leader of the Democratic Alliance. |
| 1:28.0 | Well, the ANC came to power in 1994 in South Africa's first post-apartheid elections with Nelson Mandela as president |
| 1:36.1 | and amid a wave of optimism among black voters but support for the ANC has declined |
| 1:42.0 | from just shy of 70% to just over 40% in the latest elections |
| 1:47.6 | and this party which is a member of the Socialist International Movement must now try to govern along with the Democratic Alliance |
| 1:55.0 | which is regarded as pro-business and espouses market capitalism. |
| 2:00.1 | The BBC's Nomser Masseco is in Cape Town. I asked her if there are any details emerging from the talks over ministerial portfolios. |
| 2:09.0 | Well, the details are still going to be threshed out in terms of the distribution of |
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