THE 2024 elections have come and gone. For the first time in the history of our 30-year democracy, the governing ANC has humiliatingly lost its outright majority in the national legislature and in three provincial legislatures.
After the governing party’s crushing loss of votes and stunning upset, we no longer have the single-party government that the ANC dominated over decades.
Now, the buzzwords are coalitions and governments of national and provincial unity (GNU and GPU). Sometimes, people use the words interchangeably. Essentially, the words entail co-governance involving two or more political parties.
South Africa had a GNU in 1994 even though the ANC had won an outright majority and did not need to invite the National Party and the IFP to become part of the GNU.
However, the ANC’s significant loss of votes has forced it to depend on coalition partners
