LISTEN: SA marks one year of the GNU
South Africa has come a long way since the establishment of the Government of National Unity.
That's according to an analyst, as South Africans mark a year since the 2024 general elections.
The results saw the ANC dip below 50% nationally for the first time, leading to the historic formation of a national unity government.
The new kid on the block, the uMkhonto Wesizwe Party led by former president Jacob Zuma, became the official opposition.
The GNU members comprised ten political parties, including the DA and IFP.
University of Tshwane political analyst Levy Ndou says the journey since the polls has been bittersweet.
" It has been a difficult, and very interesting journey. Interesting in the sense that for the first time since the birth of democracy in South Africa, the ANC lost the majority at a national level. That has brought in a new era wherein other political parties that we always knew as the opposition had to join the ANC to form a government."
Ndou says the election outcome put President Cyril Ramaphosa under pressure, as it forced him to appoint non-ANC members to his cabinet for the first time.
" It was a difficult era for President Ramaphosa to come up with cabinet, which took him quite some time to do so, and we waited in anxiety for quite some time because the president had to make sure that the parties that are in the GNU are not only seen to be accommodated in government, but you see them being given specific responsibilities in government."
Listen below:
