Mozambique’s new President Daniel Chapo has been sworn in at a low-key ceremony in the capital, Maputo, more than three months after heavily disputed elections.

Most businesses in Maputo were shut after defeated presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane called for a national strike to protest against Chapo’s inauguration.

Chapo won the election held in October with 65% of the vote, extending the 49-year-rule of the Frelimo party.

Mondlane – who contested the election as an independent – came second with 24% of the vote. He rejected the result, saying it was rigged.

Mondlane called for a strike on inauguration day “against the thieves of the people”.

Both of Mozambique’s leading opposition parties – Renamo and MDM – boycotted the swearing-in ceremony because they too do not recognise Chapo as the rightful winner.

Even those in Mozambique who do wish Chapo well openly question his legitimacy.

“Chapo is someone I admire greatly,” civil society activist Mirna Chitsungo tells the BBC.

“I worked with him for four years – I am familiar with his willingness to act, his openness to dialogue, and his readiness to follow recommendations from civil society on the ground.

“However, he is assuming an illegitimate power. This stems from a fraudulent electoral process… He is taking power in a context where the people do not accept him.”

‘He will face many enemies’

In addition to winning over a hostile public, Chapo will also have to deliver the economic turnaround and halt to corruption that he promised on the campaign trail.

“Chapo will face many enemies because it looks like Mozambique is run by cartels, including cartels of books, cartel of medicines, cartel of sugar, cartel of drugs, cartel of kidnappings, mafia groups,” says analyst and investigative journalist Luis Nhanchote.

“He needs to have a strong team of experts, willing to join him in this crusade of dismantling the groups meticulously,” he adds.

“But first, he has to calm down Mozambicans and do all in his power to restore peace in the country.”

Daniel Francisco Chapo was born on 6 January 1977 in Inhaminga, a town in Sofala province, the sixth of 10 siblings. This was during Mozambique’s civil war, and the armed conflict forced his family to move to another nearby district.

His secondary schooling in the coastal city of Beira was followed by a law degree from Eduardo Mondlane University then a master’s degree in development management from the Catholic University of Mozambique.

Now married to Gueta Sulemane Chapo, with whom he has three children, Chapo is also said to be a church-going Christian and fan of basketball and football.

Many current and former colleagues describe Chapo as humble, hard-working and a patient leader.

Source: BBC

The government of Chad has insisted the situation in capitol N’Djamena is stable after gunshots were heard near the presidential palace.

Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah said in a video apparently recorded within the palace complex that there had been a “little incident” but that “everything is calm”.

Sources close to the African state’s government said clashes had occurred between security forces and “terrorist elements”.

The French news agency AFP quoted Koulamallah as saying that 18 attackers and a member of the security forces had been killed.

Chad is a landlocked country in northern-central Africa which, since gaining independence from France in 1960, has seen frequent periods of instability and fighting, most recently between government forces and those of Islamist group Boko Haram.

It is led by President Mahamat Déby, who was installed by the military in 2021 after his father, Idriss Déby, was killed in a battle with rebel forces after 30 years in power.

Following the incident on Wednesday, tanks were seen in the area and all roads leading to the palace were closed, the AFP said.

In the video, posted to Facebook, Koulamallah is seen surrounded by members of the government forces.

“Nothing serious has happened,” he says.

“We are here and we will defend our country at the price of our blood. Be calm.

“This whole attempt at destabilisation has been thwarted.”

He is then seen taking photos and raising his fist with the soldiers.

Koulamallah was quoted by AFP as saying the assault had been launched by a 24-man commando unit, adding that six of the attackers had suffered injuries.

A further three members of the government forces also suffered injuries, he added.

The incident came just hours after a visit to the former French territory by China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, who met Déby and other senior officials.

Source: BBC

Chad voted Sunday in a general election the government says is a key step towards ending military rule, with turnout expected to be low after the opposition called for a boycott.

Midday figures suggested a turnout of just 38 percent to choose a new parliament, provincial assemblies and local councils, according to the elections management agency ANGE.

Election officials in the upmarket district where the president’s family and ruling dignitaries live put voter apathy down to the “cold weather”.

But opposition parties have urged Chad’s eight million voters to shun the election, the results of which they say had been decided in advance.

They “have all stayed at home following our call, that is, the overwhelming majority,” Succes Masra, leader of the opposition Transformers party, told AFP.

The boycott leaves the field open for candidates aligned with President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who was brought to power by the military in 2021 and then legitimised in a presidential election in May that opposition candidates denounced as fraudulent.

“I urge all my compatriots on the electoral roll to come out and vote en masse,” Deby posted on Facebook, alongside photos of himself casting his ballot on what he called a “historic day”.

‘Nothing’s been done yet’

On Saturday, Masra had said: “The fabricated results are already in the computers.”

Herve Natouingan, 28, a construction worker turned motorbike taxi driver due to a lack of job prospects, said it was “pointless” to cast a ballot because “there’s no real voting in Chad”.

Patrice Lumumba Deoumoundou, an unemployed 39-year-old, told AFP he had voted Sunday morning in the hope of “change across the board” — more jobs, fewer price rises, “more justice” and “more equality”.

“Nothing’s been done yet,” he said.

As in previous elections, soldiers, police officers and nomads voted on Saturday for logistical reasons.

Chad’s election management agency said there had been “record” turnout, with more than 72 percent in the army and 54 percent among nomads.

“There is a lot at stake locally in these elections,” it said.

“The nomads came to ask the people who will be elected tomorrow to improve their living conditions,” said sheikh Djibrine Hassabakarim, one of the community’s representatives.

He said climate change had made life hard for his community, killing livestock, triggering clashes with sedentary farmers and making it hard for them to feed their families.

Transition to democracy

Polling stations, which will remain open until 6:00 pm (1700 GMT), are being monitored by around 100 foreign election observers and representatives of political parties.

On Saturday evening, the opposition Democratic Party of the Chadian People (PDPT) said more than a thousand ballots intended for the sub-prefecture of Bongor had disappeared.

It called for “vigilance” to “thwart the fraud networks” it said had been set up by the ruling MPS party.

Voting is taking place against a backdrop of recurring attacks by the jihadist group Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region, the ending of a military accord with former colonial master France and accusations that Chad is interfering in the conflict ravaging neighbouring Sudan.

The government has presented the elections as the final stage in the transition to democracy.

Deby took power in 2021 after the death of his father, who had ruled the Sahel country for three decades.

Source: AFP

Former president John Mahama, Ghana’s main opposition leader, tried twice before to win back the country top post.

Now he has secured a huge comeback on his third attempt for the presidency after tapping into the country’s economic frustrations to win Saturday’s election.

His win marks a historic victory, making him the first president in the three decades of Ghana’s Fourth Republic — since the 1992 return to multi-party democracy — to reclaim the presidency after being voted out.

Mahama, of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, beat out Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, who represented the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and who conceded defeat on Sunday.

The economy became a major election issue after Ghana defaulted on its debt and entered into a $3 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund.

Mahama, 66, who served as president from 2012 to 2017, promised to “reset” Ghana, renegotiate parts of the IMF deal and introduce a “24-hour” economy to create jobs, a major concern for many younger voters.

– Writer and music fan –

A writer and devotee of Afrobeat music, Mahama wrote in his memoir “My First Coup d’Etat — And Other True Stories from the Lost Decades of Africa” that he was changed by his boyhood experiences during a 1966 military coup.

He was born in northern Ghana as a child of privilege, his house being the only one in the village with a diesel generator.

His father, who served as junior minister, was briefly detained and interrogated by the 1966 coup leaders but was later released unharmed.

Mahama was also a Member of Parliament and chairman of the West Africa Caucus at the Pan-African Parliament in Pretoria.

On corruption, Mahama says he will create a new office tasked with scrutinising government procurement above a $5 million threshold.

He says unchecked procurement processes are a major source of corruption.

Mahama voiced support for the anti-LGBTQ bill passed by Ghana’s parliament in February but which is yet to be signed into law and has sparked international criticism.

But Mustapha Gbande, a spokesperson for Mahama’s campaign, had expressed confidence in the candidate’s chances.

“People are looking for change and they trust Mahama to steer the country in a better direction,” he said.

But Mahama’s tenure as president was marred by a severe energy crisis that led to persistent power cuts, known locally as “dumsor”, which dented his reputation.

Corruption allegations also plagued his administration, although no charges were formally filed against him.

Mahama’s campaign sought to counter criticism by emphasising his experience in international leadership, including his role in combating the Ebola crisis as chairman of regional West African bloc ECOWAS.

Source: AFP

The party of Senegal’s Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said Thursday that his convoy was attacked a day earlier while he was campaigning for upcoming parliamentary elections.

The West African nation is due to vote in snap legislative polls on November 17 after President Bassirou Diomaye Faye dissolved the opposition-dominated parliament in September.

Sonko was unharmed in Wednesday’s attack, but a former minister and head of a party allied to Sonko’s Pastef party suffered a broken arm, according to local media reports.

His party published a photo purporting to show his arm in a sling with a bloodied sleeve.

Sonko’s convoy was pelted with stones in the central town of Koungheul on Wednesday evening, Vieux Aidara, a member of his campaign team, told AFP.

“The rapid intervention of the police dispersed the attackers,” he added.

“Violence has no place in an election. In Koungheul, they tried and they only tried because frankly, attacking… Pastef is suicide,” Sonko said on social media, without identifying the attackers.

Media reports quoted local opposition leader and MP Fanta Sall as saying that opposition activists had themselves been targeted by armed “strongmen” acting on behalf of Pastef.

She said that several people had been injured.

An attack by unknown assailants targeted the headquarters of an opposition party in the capital Dakar on Monday, the day after the campaign period began, local media reported.

The attackers targeted vehicles, smashed windows and started a fire, the reports said.

Senegalese civil society figures, including Amnesty International’s Seydi Gassama and Birahim Seck from Transparency International, condemned the violence in Koungheul on social media.

President Faye and Prime Minister Sonko took office in April after sweeping to victory on a ticket of radical change, but their first six months in power have been marked by confrontation with the national assembly.

Their party is aiming for a legislative majority in November to see through their promises of social justice, sovereignty and leftist Pan-Africanism.

At the end of October, Faye called for those involved in the election to show “responsibility, restraint and moderation”.

Source: AFP

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye of Senegal dissolved the opposition-dominated parliament on Thursday, paving the way for a snap legislative election six months after he was voted in on an anti-establishment platform.

The new election has to take place within the next 90 days, according to the country’s constitution. Analysts say that Faye’s political party, PASTEF, has a high chance of securing a majority, given his popularity and his victory margin in the presidential election.

Faye, 44, won the vote in April to become Africa’s youngest elected leader, less that two weeks after he was released from prison.

His rise has reflected widespread frustration among Senegal’s youth with the country’s direction — a common sentiment across Africa, which has the world’s youngest population and a number of leaders accused of clinging to power for decades.

During the presidential campaign, he promised widespread reforms to improve the living standards of ordinary Senegalese, including fighting corruption, reviewing fishing permits for foreign companies, and securing a bigger share from the country’s natural resources for the population. He was elected with 54% of the votes.

But six months later, these pledges have yet to materialize.

Faye and Ousmane Sonko, the country’s prime minister and a popular opposition figure who helped catapult Faye to victory, have blamed the parliament. Their political party, PASTEF, does not hold a majority in the assembly, which Faye says has blocked him from executing the promised reforms.

In June, the Benno Bokk Yakaar coalition led by the former President Macky Sall cancelled a budgetary debate in a dispute over whether Sonko was required to issue his government’s policy roadmap, with Sonko arguing that he was not required to.

The tensions between the government and the parliament are “unprecedented,” Alioune Tine, founder of Afrikajom think tank, told The Associated Press. “It is all the result of the dysfunctions of the electoral process of the 2024 presidential election,” Tine said.

Faye’s decision to dissolve the national assembly does not come without risks, Gilles Yabi, political analyst and founder of WATHI think tank, told the AP.

The assembly has until the end of December to vote on the budget for next year, but new legislative elections might make it hard to meet this deadline.

The presidential election in April tested Senegal’s reputation as a stable democracy in West Africa, a region rocked in recent years by coups and attempted coups.

Both Faye and Sonko were released from prison less than two weeks before the vote following a political amnesty announced by outgoing President Macky Sall. Their arrests had sparked months of protests and concerns that Sall would seek a third term in office despite term limits. Rights groups said dozens were killed and about 1,000 were jailed.

Over 60% of Senegalese are under 25, and 90% work in informal jobs. Senegal has been hit by skyrocketing inflation in recent years, making it difficult for them to get by.

The country is also the major source of irregular migration to Europe, with thousands leaving every year on rickety, artisanal fishing boats in search of economic opportunities.

Thursday’s announcement came days after one such boat carrying almost 90 people capsized, killing at least 39.

Source: AP

South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma has been expelled from the African National Congress (ANC), the party he once led, after campaigning for a rival party in the 29 May general election, local media is reporting.

The ANC’s disciplinary committee found him guilty of “prejudicing the integrity” of the party by joining uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and has given him three weeks to appeal against its ruling, local media is quoting a leaked ANC document as saying.

The ANC has not officially confirmed his expulsion, while MK said Mr Zuma had not been notified of the decision taken by a “kangaroo court”.

Mr Zuma, 82, was an ANC veteran but fell out with the party after he was forced to quit as president in 2018 over corruption scandals. He has always denied any wrongdoing.

He had been suspended by the ANC in January after creating MK, which now sits in opposition to the ANC-led government in parliament.

In a statement, MK said it was shocked to learn from media reports that Mr Zuma had been expelled.

The disciplinary proceedings were conducted “in a manner akin to a kangaroo court”, the party said.

“It is a foundational legal principle that no person, not even those accused of a serious crime, should be punished or sentenced in their absence,” it added.

The ANC’s disciplinary committee held a virtual hearing, which Mr Zuma refused to attend, saying he wanted to be physically present.

In 2021 he was jailed for contempt of court after refusing to fully co-operate with an inquiry into corruption during his nine-year presidency.

His arrest sparked the deadliest riots since the end of white-minority rule in 1994 and led to the deaths of more than 300 people.

And he now faces corruption charges over a 1999 arms deal.

South Africa’s current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, replaced Zuma in 2018, promising to clean up government.

But in the 29 May elections, the ANC suffered its worst result in 30 years, pushing the ruling party to form a coalition to share power.

uMkhonto we Sizwe – meaning “spear of the nation” – became the country’s third-largest party, largely by taking votes from the ANC.

It won almost 15% of the vote and obtained 58 seats in the 400-member parliament.

MK became the official opposition in parliament after the second-biggest party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), joined the coalition government.

Mr Zuma is barred from being an MP because he was given a 15-month prison sentence for contempt of court.

He has chosen an ex-judge, who was impeached for gross misconduct, to lead MK in parliament.

Source: BBC

The military leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso military have formed a new confederation, undermining the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The ECOWAS Heads of State and Government for validation summit is scheduled to take place in Abuja, Nigeria on Sunday.

However, the traditional regional bloc linked to Western countries is facing an unprecedented challenge.

The bloc had suspended Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali after their respective military takeovers, which occurred in July 2023, September 2022 and August 2021.

On January 27, 2024, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger announced their plan to withdraw from membership of ECOWAS after reconciliation efforts with the bloc failed to return the trio.

The three military-led West African nations blame ECOWAS for their withdrawal, saying the Western-led group is becoming a threat to its members, accusing former colonial powers France, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States of interference in their affairs

In an undermining move, the military leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger held a joint summit in Niamey, the capital of Niger on Saturday.

The event marked the first joint summit between Niger’s General Abdourahmane Tchiani, Burkina Faso’s Captain Ibrahim Traore, and Mali’s Colonel Assimi Goita since the trio came to power in their countries in successive coups.

Speaking at the summit, Tchiani called the 50-year-old ECOWAS “a threat to our states”, declaring the formation of a new confederation of three Sahel states.

“We are going to create an AES of the peoples, instead of an ECOWAS whose directives and instructions are dictated to it by powers that are foreign to Africa,” Tchiani said.

Traore accused foreign powers of seeking to exploit African countries. The trio has regularly accused the West of meddling in ECOWAS.

“This summit marks a decisive step for the future of our common space. Together, we will consolidate the foundations of our true independence, a guarantee of true peace and sustainable development through the creation of the ‘Alliance of Sahel States’ Confederation,’” Traore wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“The AES (Alliance of Sahel States) is full of enormous natural potential which, if properly exploited, will guarantee a better future for the people of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.”

The three countries, with a combined population of 72 million, are not only expected to form closer economic ties, but also, to cooperate on the security issues affecting them.

Source: Presstv

Top comedian-turned-politician Micheal Usi has been sworn as Malawi’s vice-president at a ceremony held in parliament in the capital, Lilongwe.

The 55-year-old replaces Saulos Chilima, who died in a plane crash earlier this month, along with eight other people.

Dr Usi received a standing ovation when he spoke after his inauguration, saying he accepted the role with a mixture of sadness and gratitude.

He promised to honour his predecessor’s memory and thanked President Lazarus Chakwera for believing in him as he takes up his position as vice-president in the power-sharing government.

His appointment has certainly left Malawians divided.

Some have been sharing clips of his acting career on social media and questioning whether he is serious enough to take up such a senior role.

Others however have praised President Chakwera for appointing Chilima’s party deputy and honouring the spirit of the alliance between their two parties.

Dr Usi is no stranger to controversy given his acting career. He is popularly known as “Manganya”, the name of a mischievous character he still plays in popular TV sitcom Tikuferanji.

His aide told the BBC on Friday that he was filming an episode as recently as last week.

He has been a staple on national radio and television for more than two decades making him one of the most recognisable local celebrities.

Dr Usi has also been a passionate advocate for developing and promoting Malawi’s film industry in which it is difficult to make a living.

In fact, he first funded his acting career by working as a hospital clinician. He has a qualification in clinical medicine – most patients in Malawi will be seen by a clinician as the country has a shortage of doctors.

This fuelled his passion to improve the lot of poor communities and for many years he worked at Adventist Development and Relief Agency (Adra), a Christian non-governmental organisation.

He served there in various capacities, including heading the organisation as its country director – and through him Adra funded various soaps on radio and TV that also aimed to educate people about HIV and other social issues.

The new vice-president, who is married with two daughters, also holds a PhD in youth development from the University of Bedfordshire in the UK.

Despite his position at Adra, his acting career never took a backseat – and he was participating in various productions, mostly in the local Chichewa language.

Such was his popularity as a comedian that when he founded a political movement around seven years ago – many people just thought it was a prank.

This is because he had a reputation as a trickster – his most famous ruse was fooling people into believing that he had been a good boxer at high school and was looking to return to the ring.

He organised a non-title bout against a leading local boxer. A huge crowd turned up for what they thought was a real boxing match, only to discover it was a scene in one of his television plays.

However, it turned out his political ambitions were real. His movement was called Odya zake alibe Mulandu, which loosely translates as “he who does not take what belongs to others but only eats what’s his is a free man”.

It soon became part of a newly formed political party, the UTM, headed by Dr Chilima.

This was ahead of the 2019 elections – and Dr Usi and Dr Chilima started addressing rallies together.

Both being highly eloquent speakers, their meetings often drew huge crowds and in February 2019, Chilima named his new political associate as his running mate for the vote.

The pair came third, but the results were then nullified by the high court because of irregularities.

In fresh elections that were held in 2020, the UTM joined eight other opposition political parties to form an electoral alliance, which picked Dr Chakwera as presidential candidate with Dr Chilima as the running mate, which went on to victory.

Dr Usi, was by this stage Chilima’s deputy and was named in cabinet as minister of tourism, culture and wildlife, a position he held between July 2020 and February 2023.

He later moved to become the minister of natural resources and climate change, his role until his elevation to vice-president.

Some senior members of the UTM were notable by their absence at his inauguration on Friday – signalling division in the party over his appointment.

Dr Usi did not evade the issue at his swearing-in, promising to get the party together so that they could heal and honour the legacy of Chilima, who was regarded as a magnetic politician with a special connection with people, especially the youth.

Source: BBC

South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) is faced with a tricky dilemma which will determine the future of the country after it spectacularly lost its parliamentary majority in last week’s election.

Having won only 40% of the vote, the ANC needs to find a coalition partner to secure a majority in parliament which will support its choice of president and legislative plans – unless it tries to go alone with a minority government.

One option would be to strike a deal with the second biggest party, the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA), which won 22% of the vote.

However this would be politically risky, as the DA’s critics accuse it of trying to protect the economic privileges the country’s white minority built up during the racist system of apartheid – a charge the party denies.

Alternatively, the ANC could work with two radical parties that broke away from it – former President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party or Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

These three parties share the same constituency, the black majority, and their combined vote comes to 65%. Mr Malema has warned the ANC against forming a coalition that would “reinforce white supremacy” and be a “puppet of a white imperialist agenda”.

This was a clear reference to a coalition with the DA, whose policies are diametrically opposed to the ANC’s, but they both agree on the need to uphold the constitution that South Africa adopted at the end of apartheid in 1994.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has made it clear that any coalition agreement would have to be within the framework of the current constitution.

One of the big obstacles to a deal is the DA’s fierce opposition to the ANC’s efforts to create a welfare state – especially a government-funded national health service, which the DA rejects, saying it is too expensive andthreatens the future of the private health sector.

The DA believes in the free market, opposes a minimum wage, and wants to reduce red tape, saying this is the best way to improve the economy and raise living standards for all South Africans.

It is vehemently opposed to the ANC’s black economic empowerment policies, seeing them as discriminating against racial minorities while simply leading to the enrichment of the ANC’s business cronies.

Denying the allegations, the ANC has resolutely pursued these policies, arguing that they give black people a stake in the economy that they were excluded from during apartheid.

ANC chairman Gwede Mantashe has gone as far as to say the ANC’s black empowerment policies are non-negotiable, suggesting that he has ruled out a coalition with the DA.

But, according to some local media, President Ramaphosa is willing to enter into a coalition with the DA, believing that their policy differences could be overcome.

To overcome racial sensitivities, other parties – such as the mainly black Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the Good party, which draws its support primarily from the coloured community, as people of mixed race are known in South Africa – could be included to form a Government of National Unity (GNU).

The ANC’s other option is to form a coalition with MK, which was the big winner of the election by securing third spot with 15% of the vote in the first election it contested.

But it is demanding a fresh poll, alleging that it got even more votes but the final result was rigged. The electoral commission has rejected the allegation, and MK has not yet presented any evidence for its claim.

The chasm between it and the ANC is wide, wider than with any other party, partly because of the personal animosity between Mr Zuma and Mr Ramaphosa, who ousted him as the country’s leader.

As well as demanding a new president, MK wants the constitution to be torn up so that South Africa becomes an “unfettered parliamentary democracy” – something the ANC has ruled out.

At first glance, this also rules out the EFF, as it too is demanding a constitutional amendment so that white-owned land can be expropriated without compensation.

Mr Malema, a former ANC youth leader who was expelled by the party in 2012 for fomenting divisions and bringing the party into disrepute, said the EFF was willing to work with the ANC in a coalition government. However, the party’s demand for land expropriation was a “cardinal principle”, and it would not join the government if the ANC rejects it.

The ANC and EFF together have 198 seats – just short of the 201 seats needed for a parliamentary majority, so a smaller party would have to be brought into a coalition.

Or they could team up with Mr Zuma’s MK, which also supports land expropriation, and says there is a need to distribute farmland on an “equal basis among the farming population”.

But to change the constitution, a two-thirds majority is needed and again the ANC, EFF and MK fall just short of the 267 seats needed – they have 256 seats between them.

While the ANC is opposed to constitutional amendments, it accepts that the current land-ownership patterns need to be tackled.

In an interview with South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper, former President Kgalema Motlanthe, a close ally of Mr Ramaphosa, said the “land question” was a “source of national grievance”.

His comments suggest there could be room for agreement with the EFF, and possibly even MK, on the issue.

The DA strongly opposes a deal between its three rivals, saying it would be a “Doomsday Coalition” that would turn South Africa into a “Zimbabwe or Venezuela”.

“The Doomsday Coalition will plunge this country into ethnic and racial conflict the likes of which it has never witnessed before,” the party says.

But some ANC officials hold the opposite view – that stability would be threatened if MK is excluded, given its electoral success, which has made it the largest party in KwaZulu-Natal.

KwaZulu-Natal is South Africa’s second-most populous province, and is often described as the economic artery of the nation because of its ports.

It is also politically the most volatile province, with a history of violence – more than 300 people died in riots after Mr Zuma was sent to prison in 2021.

He was convicted of contempt of court for defying an order to co-operate with an official inquiry into corruption during his nine-year presidency, which ended in 2018.

ANC members in KwaZulu-Natal point out that with another court case looming – Mr Zuma is due to stand trial next year on charges of corruption over a 1999 arms deal – there is a real risk of a fresh wave of violence.

They therefore feel some sort of deal needs to be reached with him to draw a line under the past, and to recognise his status as a former president – especially as he has demonstrated that he commands 15% of the national vote.

ANC leaders in Gauteng – South Africa’s biggest and richest province – are said to favour a deal with the EFF, but their hand has been considerably weakened by the fact that the two parties do not have enough seats for a parliamentary majority.

That increases the prospect of an ANC-DA coalition, especially as it is favoured by the private sector as the best option to guarantee economic stability and to avoid capital flight.

But South Africa’s respected News24 website reports that the ANC is considering the option of forming a minority government, while signing a confidence-and-supply agreement with the DA, and the Inkatha Freedom Party, a mainly black party with support in KwaZulu-Natal, which has 17 seats.

The two would vote with the ANC on crucial issues such as the budget, while the ANC would have to constantly lobby them – or other parties – to support it on other legislation.

This could help the ANC out of its dilemma of choosing a coalition partner, and it may also suit the DA, as a coalition with the ANC could cause it to lose support to parties to its right.

However, there is a risk that a minority government could lead to political instability and “transactional politics” – opposition MPs demanding or being offered bribes to back ANC-sponsored legislation.

It is still too early to say what will happen. All the parties are still considering their options, but many South Africans are hoping that by the time parliament convenes, within a fortnight, there will at least be an outline deal on what the next government will look like.

Culled from the BBC