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Month: July 2024
Hungary’s Orban, in Kyiv, proposes cease-fire to speed up peace talks
KYIV — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday to consider a cease-fire to accelerate an end to the war with Russia and also said he wanted a big cooperation agreement with Kyiv.
Orban, who is an outspoken critic of Western military aid to Ukraine and has the warmest relations of any EU leader with Russian President Vladimir Putin, held talks with Zelenskyy during his first trip to Kyiv in more than a decade.
In brief joint statements to reporters after the talks, Orban said he valued Kyiv’s push to promote Zelenskyy’s vision of peace at an international summit in June in Switzerland and its aim to hold a second, follow-up summit later this year.
“I asked the president to think about whether we could reverse the order, and speed up peace talks with making a cease-fire first,” Orban said.
“A cease-fire connected to a deadline would give a chance to speed up peace talks. I explored this possibility with the president and I am grateful for his honest answers and negotiation.”
Zelenskyy, who spoke before Orban, did not respond to those comments.
The Ukrainian leader touted the possibility of a broad bilateral cooperation agreement between Ukraine and Hungary.
“[T]he content of our dialogue today on all issues can become the basis for a bilateral document between our states, a document that will regulate all our mutual relations,” he said.
Welcoming Zelenskyy’s comments, Orban said Hungary would like to help in modernizing Ukraine’s economy.
Ties between the neighbors came under heavy strain after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, with Budapest often opposing European Union efforts to support Kyiv.
Under Orban, who upset Western partners by holding talks with Putin last October, Hungary has repeatedly accused Ukraine of curbing the rights of roughly 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living in the far west of Ukraine.
Ukraine, meanwhile, is keen to secure Hungary’s backing as it relies heavily on financial and military support from the 27-member EU, where unanimity is needed for many decisions.
Challenges
Orban linked Tuesday’s surprise Ukraine visit to Hungary having assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the European Council on Monday.
“The aim of the Hungarian presidency is to contribute to solving the challenges ahead of the European Union. That’s why my first trip was to Kyiv,” Orban wrote on Facebook after he arrived in Kyiv.
Last week, the EU opened formal membership talks with Kyiv at its summit in Brussels, giving Ukraine a morale-lifting boost, although a long and tough road still lies ahead before it can join the bloc.
Zelenskyy and Orban were filmed on the sidelines of that summit in what looked like an emotional exchange.
Last year, Orban told Putin that Hungary had never wanted to oppose Russia. In early 2024, it took the EU leaders weeks to break the Hungarian prime minister’s veto to extend 50 billion euros ($53.67 billion) in new aid to Ukraine.
Ukraine has denied Budapest’s assertion that it is restricting the rights of Hungarian speakers in western Ukraine but says it is open to addressing any concerns.
Kyiv passed a law in 2017 that required all schools to teach students over the age of 10 in the Ukrainian language. Hungary saw this as a breach of the ethnic Hungarian minority’s rights.
Some changes were made in December 2023 when the issue became critical for Kyiv’s EU accession talks. Budapest said the changes were an improvement but didn’t go far enough.
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At Nairobi morgue, families of protesters collect their loved ones
Nairobi, Kenya — As protests resumed in Kenya, some families were visiting morgues Monday to collect the bodies of relatives who died during last week’s demonstrations against proposed tax increases.
Hussein Khaled, CEO of Vocal Africa, an organization of community activists, was at Nairobi’s City Mortuary assisting mourners and trying to ensure that autopsies were performed and causes of death recorded.
“We are here to support the families, particularly those who were shot and killed by police officers. We make sure we have the necessary documentation that will help us in seeking justice,” Khaled said.
Reports of the death toll vary. While President William Ruto said on Sunday that 19 people have been killed, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights reported that 24 people have died since the protests began two weeks ago.
Kennedy Mwangi Njeru, 20, was among the fatalities. His parents, Joseph Mwangi Njeru and Mary Muthoni, came to the morgue to collect their son’s body. His father said Kennedy, who he described as his firstborn and best friend, was shot in the head and the back.
“I feel very bad,” his mother said. “My son is gone, and I will never see him again.”
Kennedy Mwangi Njeru’s aunt, who gave her name only as Esther, accompanied her relatives. She said, “We have a lot of stress in our minds. … We were ready to bury [him] on Thursday this week, but we don’t have money even to pay the mortuary to travel from here to Kirinyaga.”
Phoebe Akumu Maina, a widow who lost her 17-year-old son, Kevin Odhiambo Maina, also faced a financial burden.
“I don’t have money, I have nothing. I am only just a mother. … I don’t have anything … to carry the body up to the cemetery,” she said.
Activist Hanifa Adan and others have set up an account through M-Changa, a mobile contribution platform, to help offset some of the protesters’ medical and funeral expenses.
“We had a target of 10 million [Kenyan shillings], but it actually surpassed. We collected 24 million in a day, in just like 10 hours,” Adan said.
She explained that the money, equivalent to about $193,000, will help pay hospital bills and for burial costs.
As some protesters demanded his resignation, Ruto promised a thorough investigation into the deaths. He has withdrawn the controversial tax bill and proposed a multi-sectoral forum to engage youth and discuss issues related to debt, taxation, unemployment and corruption.
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More than 100 dead in northern India stampede
Sri Lanka to save $5bn from bilateral debt deal
Colombo, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka will save $5 billion following the restructure of its bilateral debt, much of which is owed to China, through slashed interest rates and longer repayment schedules, the president said Tuesday.
The island nation defaulted on its foreign borrowings in 2022 during an unprecedented economic crisis that precipitated months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe said a deal struck last week had secured a moratorium on debt payments until 2028, extending the tenure of loans by eight years and cutting interest rates to an average of 2.1%.
Wickremesinghe said bilateral lenders led by China, the government’s largest single creditor, did not agree to take a haircut on their loans, but the terms agreed would nonetheless help Sri Lanka.
“With the restructure measures we have agreed, we will make a saving of $5.0 billion,” Wickremesinghe told parliament in his first address to the legislature since the debt deal.
Some of Sri Lanka’s loans from China are at high interest rates, going up to nearly 8.0% compared to borrowings from Japan, the second largest lender, at less than 1.0%.
Sri Lanka struck separate deals with China and the rest of the bilateral creditors, including Japan, France and India.
Bilateral creditors account for 28.5% of Sri Lanka’s outstanding foreign debt of $37 billion, according to treasury data from March. This excludes government-guaranteed external loans.
China accounts for $4.66 billion of the $10.58 billion that Sri Lanka has borrowed from other countries.
Wickremesinghe said he expected to complete shortly the restructure of a further $14.7 billion in external commercial loans, including $2.18 billion from the China Development Bank.
Sri Lanka’s 2022 crisis sparked months of public protests that eventually forced the resignation of then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa after an angry mob stormed his compound.
Wickremesinghe said the nation was bankrupt when he took over and he hoped the $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund bailout he secured last year would be the island’s last.
Colombo had gone to the IMF, the international lender of last resort, on 16 previous occasions and the debt restructuring is a condition of the IMF bailout.
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French left, Macron scramble to block far-right win
PARIS — Candidates in France on Tuesday faced a deadline to register for the run-off round of a high-stakes parliamentary election, as President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp and a left-wing alliance scrambled to prevent the far right from taking power.
On Sunday, French people go to polls for the decisive final round of the snap election Macron called after his camp received a drubbing in European elections last month.
His gamble appears to have backfired, with the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen scoring a victory in the first round of voting last Sunday.
Macron’s centrists trailed in third place behind the left-wing New Popular Front alliance.
Faced with the prospect of the far right taking power in France for the first time since the country’s occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II, Macron’s camp has begun cooperating with the New Popular Front alliance which includes the hard-left France Unbowed party.
The rivals are hoping that tactical voting will prevent the RN winning the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority.
Macron has called for a “broad” democratic coalition against the far right, with the political crisis overshadowing France’s preparations for the Olympic Games this summer.
Speaking to broadcaster TF1 on Monday evening, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal once again urged voters not to give the far-right an absolute majority.
“That would be catastrophic for the French,” he said, adding that the far-right would fuel divisions in society.
Third-place candidates who qualified for the second round have been urged to drop out to present a united front against the far right.
The deadline to decide whether to stand down is 6 pm Tuesday. According to a provisional count by AFP, more than 150 left-wing or centrist candidates have already dropped out.
“Only a strong republican front, uniting the left, center and conservatives, can keep the far right at bay and prevent France from tipping over,” daily newspaper Le Monde said in an editorial.
Le Pen has urged voters to give the RN an absolute majority, which would see Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old RN chief with no governing experience, become prime minister.
But most projections show the RN falling short of an absolute majority — although the final outcome remains far from certain.
The RN garnered 33 percent of the vote last Sunday, compared to 28 percent for the New Popular Front alliance and just over 20 percent for Macron’s camp.
Speaking on television on Monday night, Bardella derided efforts by Macron’s camp and the left-wing coalition to put up a united front, suggesting that the “dishonorable” alliance had been formed out of desperation.
He accused the French president of coming “to the rescue of a violent extreme-left movement” he himself had denounced just days ago.
Macron convened a cabinet meeting Monday to decide a further course of action.
“Let’s not be mistaken. It’s the far right that’s on its way to the highest office, no one else,” he said at the meeting, according to one participant.
The emotion was palpable, with several ministers dropping out of the race.
“We’ve known happier meetings,” one minister told Le Monde.
Analysts say the most likely outcome of the snap election is a hung parliament that could lead to months of political paralysis and chaos.
With a total of 76 candidates elected in the first round, the final composition of the 577-seat National Assembly will be clear only after the second round.
The second round will see a three-way or two-way run-off in the remainder of the seats to be decided, although a tiny number of four-way run-offs are also possible.
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Austin hosts Ukraine’s defense chief ahead of NATO summit
Deepening Russia-North Korea ties test US-South Korea deterrence strategy
washington — The United States’ commitment to providing extended deterrence to South Korea is being put to the test, with some South Korean politicians publicly questioning the effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear umbrella after Russia and North Korea reached a new defense pact.
Debate over the U.S. extended deterrence was sparked by Representative Na Kyung Won, a five-term lawmaker of South Korea’s ruling People Power Party, who is running for the party leadership.
“The deterrence under the solid South Korea-U.S. alliance is currently working, but it does not guarantee the capacity to respond to the future changes in the security environment,” Na said in a social media post last week.
“The international situation, such as cooperation between North Korea and Russia, is adding uncertainty to the security of South Korea,” she added, referring to the stronger military ties between Russia and North Korea, bolstered by the comprehensive strategic partnership treaty signed by Russia’s President Vladmir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang last month.
The new treaty mandates Russia and North Korea to immediately assist each other militarily if either of them is attacked by a third country. The prospect of quasi-automatic Russian involvement in any future war between the two Koreas is now causing alarm in Seoul.
The credibility of extended deterrence is a frequent topic of conversation in today’s South Korea, where citizens must contend with seemingly endless threats and provocations from the North.
Seoul is doing its best to allay citizens’ fears by invoking the April 2023 Washington Declaration, which reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea through its extended nuclear umbrella as well as robust missile defense and conventional forces.
The Washington Declaration outlined a series of measures, including the establishment of the bilateral Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG), to deter North Korea’s use of nuclear weapons.
In the joint declaration, the U.S. additionally vowed to enhance the visibility of its strategic assets, such as a nuclear-armed submarine, around the Korean Peninsula.
The Washington Declaration’s measures are collectively sufficient to deter aggression from Pyongyang, according to some experts in the U.S.
The joint declaration was “unprecedented in its strength and clarity,” Evans Revere, a former State Department official who negotiated with North Korea, told VOA’s Korean Service on Sunday. “And the NCG process is designed to be flexible, creative, and allow for adaptation to a broad range of future contingencies.”
Troop presence
David Maxwell, a former U.S. Special Forces colonel who served on the Combined Forces Command of the U.S and South Korea, told VOA’s Korean Service on Sunday that a large troop presence on the Korean Peninsula demonstrates Washington’s firm commitment to the defense of its key ally.
“How many Russian troops are committed to North Korea? There is no comparison as to the commitment,” said Maxwell, who now serves as vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy.
Currently, the U.S. has about 28,500 service members deployed in South Korea.
In contrast, Elbridge Colby, who served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development in the Trump administration, suggested the U.S. might have to go beyond the Washington Declaration to ensure the security of South Korea.
“I think we need to take very seriously how dire the threat from North Korea is, and that the Washington Declaration is not a solution,” Colby told VOA’s Korean Service on the phone last week.
“It’s been a failure that both North Korea and China are a nuclear breakout. They’re increasing the size and the sophistication of the nuclear forces. So it’s very unsurprising that serious people in South Korea are coming to this conclusion.”
Bruce Bennett, senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, believes some South Koreans may lack confidence in the Washington Declaration because the NCG’s work is not made public.
“Because the NCG that it established has carried out most of its work in secrecy and provided little substance to reassure the South Korean people, many of the South Koreans with whom I have spoken are concerned that it is an inadequate means for rebuilding South Korean trust,” Bennett told VOA’s Korean Service on Sunday.
Responding to an inquiry from VOA’s Korean Service, a State Department spokesperson said Thursday that “the U.S. and the ROK are enhancing and strengthening extended deterrence through the Nuclear Consultative Group, established as part of the Washington Declaration.”
The spokesperson also stressed that the Washington Declaration is “a landmark U.S. extended deterrence commitment to the Republic of Korea.” The Republic of Korea is South Korea’s official name.
Earlier last week, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell maintained that the series of mechanisms put in place between the United States and South Korea through the Washington Declaration “has given us what we need to work with” regarding the alliance’s deterrence posture.
North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles Monday, one of which is presumed to have failed and fallen inland near Pyongyang. The latest missile test came just five days after North Korea conducted a ballistic missile test in which it claimed to have successfully tested its multiple-warhead missile technology. South Korean authorities have dismissed such a claim.
Eunjung Cho contributed to this report.
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Alliance sets sights on minerals needed for global shift to green energy
The U.S. government’s representative to the Minerals Security Partnership, an alliance of mostly Western countries that aims to speed the development of energy mineral supply chains, said last month that a Chinese company was using “predatory” tactics to hold down the price of cobalt mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Henry Wilkins looks at what this means for Africa.
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UN talks in Doha end; recognition remains distant dream for Taliban
doha, qatar — The third round of U.N.-led talks to explore engagement with Afghanistan ended Monday without the Taliban making any reform pledges or winning concessions from the international community.
A few international organizations and special envoys for Afghanistan from nearly two dozen countries met with Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar, over two days. Rosemary DiCarlo, U.N. undersecretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, who presided over the event, told reporters the talks were “constructive” and “useful.”
“This is the first time such a broad cross section of the international community and the de facto authorities have had the opportunity to hold such detailed discussions,” DiCarlo said at the news conference after the event. “The discussions were frank and, I believe, useful.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres initiated the “Doha process” a year ago.
While participants in the latest round of talks agreed to continue to engage, DiCarlo ruled out recognizing the de facto regime in Kabul unless the Taliban ended curbs on women’s education and participation in public life.
Individual decisions
“Afghanistan cannot return to the international fold, or fully develop economically and socially, if it is deprived of the contributions and potential of half its population,” the U.N. official said, adding that recognizing Taliban rule is also not the mandate of the global body but would be the decision of individual countries.
Although nearly 16 countries have embassies in Afghanistan, the global community has held back recognition of the Taliban government mainly because it is not inclusive and restricts the rights of women and girls in the country.
Though women’s rights were not part of the official agenda, DiCarlo said participants raised the issue throughout their discussions and highlighted the need for an inclusive government during the two-day talks that focused on developing a private business sector and helping the Taliban sustain anti-narcotics gains.
“Afghanistan’s messages reached all participant countries,” Taliban delegation head Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on social media platform X after the talks, adding that his country needed international cooperation.
Speaking to VOA on background, a Western diplomat said the Afghan delegation members were “very competent” and their technical know-how was “impressive.”
Earlier, in a post on X, Mujahid, who is also the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, claimed success.
“It was pledged that restriction on banking and economic avenues should be lifted,” the post said.
While more than a hundred Taliban members face international sanctions, including financial sanctions, Afghanistan’s banks do not. Experts say the country is disconnected from the global banking system and the dominant SWIFT financial transaction network because Western banks are wary of doing business with Afghan banks and exposing themselves to the reputational and financial risks they pose.
No new policy was introduced by any country, the Western diplomat privy to the talks said.
Separately, the U.S. froze $9.5 billion in Afghan central bank funds after the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021. In 2022, the Biden administration put $3.5 billion of that money in a Switzerland-based trust account called “Fund for the Afghan People,” which a board oversees. The remaining money remains locked. China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran are among countries that support unfreezing the funds.
‘It was about understanding’
Speaking to reporters late Monday, Mujahid said the Taliban did not come expecting a breakthrough.
“It [the gathering] was about understanding each other’s views,” Mujahid said in response to a VOA question on the lack of progress on contentious issues between the Taliban and the West. “The achievement is that every country wants to support Afghanistan.”
The U.N. is under fire from rights activists for its decision to exclude Afghan civil society activists to ensure the Taliban’s participation in the global meeting. DiCarlo told reporters it was “a very tough, maybe impossible choice.”
“We have a mandate to support this process [of talks]. Our belief was to bring the de facto authorities and special envoys together for direct talks,” DiCarlo said. “Regrettably, the de facto authorities will not sit across the table with Afghan civil society in this format.”
When asked what concessions the global body would be willing to make in the future to bring the Taliban back to the table, DiCarlo said she could not predict what conditions the de facto rulers might place.
“I could not speculate on that. What I can say is that they did come today. They were very engaged,” she said.
At least three prominent Afghan women have declined the U.N.’s invitation to meet for talks in Doha on Tuesday.
“I respect their decision,” DiCarlo said. “We’re involved in a process now that is going to be a long-term process. This is not easy going forward. And we will continue to try to do the best we can. We won’t make everybody happy.”
Asked whether the Taliban would come back for more talks, Mujahid said it would depend on who and what were on the table.
“We will consider each meeting separately,” he said. ” We will look at its agenda and targets.”
No date has been set for the next round of U.N.-led talks on Afghanistan.
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UN panel says former Pakistan PM Khan was detained ‘arbitrarily’
islamabad — A group of independent experts from the United Nations demanded Monday the immediate and unconditional release of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, asserting that his imprisonment is arbitrary and violates international laws.
The Geneva-based Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council, published the opinion, saying that Pakistani authorities have “no legal basis” for Khan’s detention.
The five-member group pointed out that the imprisonment of the 71-year-old former Pakistani leader violated at least a dozen articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“The Working Group requests the government of Pakistan to take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Mr. Khan without delay and bring it into conformity with the relevant international norms,” it said.
Khan was convicted and sentenced to three years in August 2023 for alleged corrupt practices after a trial that he and independent legal experts declared replete with due process violations. Three days later, the Election Commission of Pakistan disqualified him from running for office for five years.
The conviction was related to his alleged failure to report and disclose gifts received during his time as prime minister in the so-called Toshakhana case. Toshakhana — which literally means “treasure house” — is a government department where gifts received by Pakistani leaders during foreign state visits are stored and displayed.
The U.N. group determined that the prosecution was not grounded in law from the outset, and that Khan’s unlawful detention “appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office.”
The opinion was dated March 25 but made public only Monday. The experts concluded that “the appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. Khan immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations.”
Khan, a philanthropist, politician and former cricket star, has been in jail since last August. He served as the prime minister of Pakistan from 2018 to April 2022, when an opposition-led parliamentary no-confidence vote ousted him from power.
Pakistani authorities, allegedly acting on behalf of the country’s powerful military, have filed numerous lawsuits against the ousted leader, accusing him of murder, sedition, graft and other crimes.
Khan denies the allegations as frivolous and an attempt to keep him from power. He is the head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, rated as the most popular political party in the South Asian nation of about 245 million people.
The experts noted that they had reached out to the Pakistani government through regular communication procedures to clarify the legal provisions justifying Khan’s detention and its compatibility with the state’s obligations under relevant international treaties.
“The working group regrets that it did not receive a response from the government to the present communication,” they stated.
Pakistani officials did not immediately respond to the U.N. findings.
The U.N. panel has the authority to investigate and issue legal opinions about alleged cases of arbitrarily imposed deprivation of liberty. Its opinions are not legally binding, but they hold significant reputational weight.
Khan’s party hailed the group’s conclusions and renewed its demand for Khan’s immediate release.
“The international silence has finally broken on the illegal incarceration of Imran Khan,” said Zulfi Bukhari, adviser to Khan and a PTI spokesperson.
“The international condemnation of the manner in which the government of Pakistan illegally stripped Mr. Khan of his freedom and rights has echoed from the U.S. to the U.N. … and now the Working Group [is] shining a light on it as a blatant effort to interfere with his intentions to run for political office,” Bukhari stated.
In the lead-up to Pakistan’s February 2024 general elections, PTI candidates were arrested, tortured and intimidated into leaving the party. Authorities blocked and disrupted PTI campaign rallies, and the party was deprived of its iconic cricket bat symbol in a controversial move, forcing its candidates to run as independents.
Just days before the February 8 election, Khan was convicted in three more cases and sentenced to an additional 10 years, 14 years and seven years, respectively. He blamed the military for the crackdown on his party and vote manipulations and mobile phone and internet shutdowns on election day — charges the election commission and the military denied.
Despite the restrictions, independents aligned with PTI won the most directly elected seats, 92, but were short of a simple majority needed to form the government.
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 368-7 to urge a “full and independent investigation of claims of interference or irregularities” in Pakistan’s election.
Islamabad rejected the probe call as an interference in the country’s internal affairs, saying the U.S. congressional resolution stemmed from “an incomplete understanding of the political situation and electoral process” in Pakistan.
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France’s left, center urge alliance against far-right ahead of 2nd round vote
France’s far-right has never been closer to power after winning the first round of snap legislative elections Sunday. It’s a stunning result that could see the far-right taking control of the government — and a far-right prime minister ahead of the Paris Olympics — if it wins big in the second round of voting July 7. The left and center are now calling for an alliance against extremism in one of Europe’s largest countries. Lisa Bryant reports from Paris.
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Russia suffers massive losses in Ukraine, but effect on Kremlin policy unclear
Mauritania president re-elected in stable outlier in turbulent region
Former army chief earns nearly 56% of vote to earn second 5-year term
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Nepalese court sentences ‘Buddha Boy’ in sexual assault case
Ramaphosa names bloated new South African Cabinet
Johannesburg — After weeks of political deal-making, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced the Cabinet of his new government of national unity. Ministers from different parties will now have to put political differences aside to run the country successfully.
South Africa’s new ministers are a diverse group — from a former armed robber to a white Afrikaner nationalist.
After the long-governing African National Congress, or ANC, lost its majority in May elections, Ramaphosa opted to form an inclusive government with 10 opposition parties that don’t necessarily see eye to eye.
Ramaphosa had to divvy up Cabinet positions to keep everyone happy, with the result a somewhat bloated government of 32 ministers and 43 deputy ministers.
“The establishment of the government of national unity in its current form is unprecedented in the history of our democracy. We have had to consider how to form the new government in a manner that advances the national interest, that gives due consideration to the outcome of the election and that makes use of the respective capabilities within each of the parties,” he said.
The ANC took 20 of the 32 Cabinet posts, while the Democratic Alliance, or DA, which came second in the elections, won six. Smaller parties took the remainder.
The DA has long been a thorn in the ANC’s side, and its leader, John Steenhuisen, who was made agriculture minister, noted that the road ahead would be “difficult.”
Steenhuisen, however, pledged to try and make the new government work.
“It is now up to all of us — including the voters who created this multi-party government — to ensure that it delivers on its promise,” he said.
Experts say the ANC — which liberated South Africa from apartheid 30 years ago — only won 40% of the vote in polls in May due to a flailing economy, high unemployment, electricity and water shortages and corruption scandals.
The business-friendly DA, which captured 22% of the vote, will now head some key economic portfolios including agriculture and public works and infrastructure as well as getting deputy minister positions in the finance and trade ministries.
David Everatt, a politics professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, said the government of national unity was expected to try to give roles to all members.
“However, the Cabinet has ballooned to a remarkable 75 people, ministers and deputy ministers… the most ironic part of that is that the Democratic Alliance, which is a fairly conservative liberal party, has for many years lambasted the ruling African National Congress for having these very large Cabinets, giving jobs to pals, et cetera. They’re now sitting in exactly those seats,” he said.
The uMkhonto weSizwe party, led by corruption-accused former President Jacob Zuma, finished third in the voting, and the radical Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters came in fourth.
Both parties have refused to join the government of national unity, and object to the white-led DA’s participation. They will now be on the opposition benches.
Other smaller parties that did join and were given portfolios include the anti-immigrant, populist Patriotic Alliance and the right-wing white nationalist Freedom Front Plus.
The Patriotic Alliance’s leader, Gayton McKenzie, an ex-gangster who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for robbery, is now minister for sports, arts and culture. Pieter Groenewald of the FF Plus has been made minister of correctional services.
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