President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa is re-elected for a second term following a stunning last-minute coalition agreement.

Legislators on Friday re-elected South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to a second term. This came about when his party, hours before the election, forged an unexpected coalition agreement with a former political rival.

In Parliament, African National Congress leader Ramaphosa defeated the unexpectedly nominated Julius Malema of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters with a decisive win. In the 400-member house, Ramaphosa earned 283 votes to Malema’s 44.

With the support of some smaller parties and legislators from the Democratic Alliance, the nation’s second-largest party, 71-year-old Ramaphosa was able to win a second term. After the African National Congress (ANC) lost its long-held majority in a historic election two weeks ago, reducing it to 159 members in Parliament, they supported him in the vote and helped him over the finish line.

The ANC and the DA inked the last-minute deal during a break in what ended up being an extended parliamentary session, thereby guaranteeing Ramaphosa’s continued leadership of Africa’s most developed economy. In their first national coalition in which no party holds a majority in Parliament, the parties will now share governance of South Africa.

The agreement, known as a government of national unity, unites the ANC with the Democratic Alliance (DA), a white-led party that has long served as the primary opposition and the ANC’s most ardent opponent. Two smaller parties at least joined the deal as well.

The agreement, which thrust South Africa into unknown territory, was hailed by Ramaphosa as a “new birth, a new era for our country” and he urged the involved parties “to overcome their differences and to work together.”

He declared, “This is what we are going to do, and this is what I promise to accomplish as President.”

Since the apartheid system of white minority rule ended in 1994, the ANC, the renowned party of Nelson Mandela, had controlled South Africa with a comfortable majority.

However, in the humiliating national election held on May 29, a pivotal moment for the nation, it lost its 30-year majority. The vote took place in the midst of a general outcry among South Africans due to the country’s high rates of unemployment, inequality, and poverty.

Given the radically divergent philosophies of the ANC, a former liberation movement, and the centrist, business-friendly DA, which received 21% of the vote in the national election—the second-largest percentage after the ANC’s 40%—analysts caution that difficulties may lie ahead.

To start, the DA took issue with the ANC government’s decision to bring a highly sensitive case before the UN Supreme Court, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

The first person to confirm the deal was DA leader John Steenhuisen.

He said, “A deal has been signed, and the DA lawmakers will vote for Ramaphosa for president,” as he left Friday’s sessions to give a speech that was broadcast live on television. “From today, the DA will co-govern the Republic of South Africa in a spirit of unity and collaboration,” he stated.

The Parliament session started at 10 a.m. in the unusual setting of a conference center near Cape Town’s waterfront, after the city’s historic National Assembly building was gutted in a fire in 2022. The house first went through the hours long swearing-in of hundreds of new lawmakers and electing a speaker and a deputy speaker.

The presidential election took place late at night, and the results weren’t made public until well after 10 p.m. As midnight slipped into Saturday, Ramaphosa concluded his acceptance speech.

The MK Party, led by former president Jacob Zuma, boycotted the meeting, although this had little bearing on the results because a quorum only requires a third of the chamber.

Speaking with anyone else who wished to join the unity government, the ANC was willing to listen, according to Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula. He claimed that the multi-party accord will “prioritize the country across the political and ideological divide.” There are eighteen political groups represented in Parliament.

A few parties declined to participate, among them Malema’s EFF.

The Patriotic Alliance, whose leader, Gayton McKenzie, served a prison sentence for bank robbery, and the Inkatha Freedom Party were the other two parties who signed onto the coalition agreement.

McKenzie claimed that just as he had been granted a second shot at life, South Africa now had one as well—a chance to address its severe socioeconomic issues.

After the election results were announced on June 2, Parliament had to vote on the president within 14 days, giving the ANC a deadline to reach a coalition agreement. The final negotiations for a coalition agreement were held over the course of Thursday and Friday, according to party officials, after the ANC had been trying for two weeks to reach one.

Since the African National Congress (ANC) won the first all-race election in 1994 and put an end to over fifty years of racial segregation, South Africa has not experienced such a high degree of political unpredictability. Since then, starting with Mandela, every leader in South Africa has come from the ANC.

The new unity administration also had similarities to the 1994 act of reconciliation when the African National Congress (ANC) held the majority and Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first Black president, invited political rivals to join a unity government. In his early political career, Ramaphosa had been instrumental in such negotiations.

The ANC’s hand was forced this time.

Leader of the PA McKenzie remarked, “The ANC has been very magnanimous in that they have accepted defeat and said, ‘let’s talk.”

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