South Africa'sGovernment of National Unity (GNU) has passed its first milestone,reaching 100 dayssince it was announced in June 2024. Many are taking this moment to reflect on its success to date and its trajectory.
With ten parties competing and vying for control, power and leadership in thisunique experiment in South Africa's young democracy, the stakes are high.
The biggest test for the new government is perhaps South Africa's economic outlook amid sky-high unemployment; over 11 millionpeople are in need of jobs in the country, with almost half of all young people out of work.
Combined with the rising cost of living, the poorest of the poor remain worried whilestruggling to feed their families.
Between hope and despair
South Africa'sbiggest trade union, COSATU,has called for a nationwide strike,with marches held across the country this week in response to the lack of progressagainst joblessness and retrenchments three months into the leadership of the new government.
While abroad, confidence in South Africa has been rising since the announcement of the GNU, the strikes called by COSATU have dampened the mood in the country.
Analyst Sandile Swana told DW in an interview thatSouth Africans should celebrate the fact that the country has broken out of the monopoly of power held by the African National Congress (ANC) for three decades rather than focusing on the slow pace of progress.
"There are many risks and there are a lot of opportunities, but it will not be an automatic success, it is going to be a lot of work", he stressed, adding that the country had finally entered an age ofcompetitive, multiparty democracy.
The strikes called by COSATU, which historically has kept close relations with the ANC, are likelyindicative of the overall mood in the country when it comes to the ANC.
Nelson Mandela's liberation partysuffered its worst election defeat in the May elections, dropping to just over 40% of the vote. However,President Cyril Ramaphosa retainedhis position after forminga coalition with thepro-business Democratic Alliance (DA), the single biggest opposition party, as well asseveral other smaller parties.
Some had hoped that with such little support, Ramaphosa would have handed the reins over to someone else to revitalize the ANC— a party which for years has been run by the same group of senior politicians at its top-tier levels, who nearly each seem to have been involved in some corruption scandal.
Lack of a comprehensive policy plan
Swana noted that against the backdrop of years of stagnation under the ANC,the GNUand all the parties that are involved in it areseen as actively trying to affect change while stressing that this alone is not anachievement in and of itself and that presenting it as suchwould be unfair.
He highlighted that the lack of a comprehensive policy plan at the heart of the GNU to move the country forward was the biggest issue, claiming that the GNU was primarily beholden to business and industry rather than the people on the ground.
"There is a bit of optimism, but we need a plan that belongs to the nation. A clique is running the country at the moment, determined by big business," he said.
Swanastressedthat in the first 100 days, no one in the newgovernment had made any comments about the most pressing issues in the country: sufficient energy supply, infrastructure failures,the fight against rampant crime and corruption, not to mention unemployment.
This, he says, makesitdifficult to measure the performance of the GNU, while acknowledging that such big challengescannot simply be solved in just 100 days.
ANC and DA: a marriage of inconvenience
Furthermore, there are considerable conflicts within the GNU that are making headlines. Recently, there have been political discrepancies about theimplementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) bill, the biggest change to South Africa's public health system in decades.
The main opponent, the DA, argues that the NHI will be bad for business.
Further clashes between the DA and the ANC includedifferences in opinion on the Primary Education Bill, which even resulted in theremoval of a local DA mayor in Tshwane (Pretoria).
Through all these disagreements, however, the ANC appears to suffer the most, unable tofind a cohesive voice within itself orwithin the context of the GNU.
Some measurable progress
According to Swana, there are at least some areas where measurable progress has occurred in recent months, including logistics, transportation of goods, public transportation with new trains, and improvements at the country's main ports.
The Department of Home Affairs, run by the DA, meanwhile, has also introduced a comprehensive plan to address years of backlog in various applications, from visas to work permits to passports. Generally speaking, there are more MPsvisiting their constituents, and there are more ministers paying attention to their portfolios, like Labor Minister Nomakhosazana Meth, who has been inspectingbusinesses in certain areas more frequently.
But DW correspondent Thuso Khumalo in Johannesburg agrees that the new government needs to be even more visible to people on the ground if it wants to gain their trust and support.
According to Khumalo,people see that the GNU is slowly moving things forward, "but people have higher expectations: social delivery is not as fast as needed."
"People ...are still not employed; they are still facing crime in their communities,"Khumalo added.
Booming business — for now
Political analyst Daniel Silke told DW that the bottom line is that the mood in the country has improved since the GNU was firstannounced and that this could also be attractive to investors."The fact that the GNU comprises the ANC together with centrist political parties while excluding the extremist side of the political equation in South Africa ... is seen as more business-friendly."
"Foreign investors are certainly looking more positively at South Africa while still sitting on the sidelines to wait to see whether the GNU is more than just an elite agreement", Silke said.
"This was the best possible outcome under the circumstances, and had therefore a boosting effect on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and also, to some degree, in the strengthening of the [South African] Rand."
The Rand is 7.5% stronger;the bond market has strengthened by11%;and the JSE's main index is up by over 10% since the new government took over, according to business reports.
However, Silke echoes Swana's views that the announcement of asubstantive policy adjustment in South Africa is what has been missing over the last 100 days: "It really has been more of a window-dressing exercise to create a better image, but the nuts and bolts of where South Africa should be in terms of economic policy remainsomewhat elusive."
Street debate: Inequality 30 years after apartheid
Edited by: Sertan Sanderson