President Cyril Ramaphosa's plan for a Government of National Unity (GNU), which would include all political parties with parliamentary seats, has been rejected by Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom fighters (EFF).
"We can't share power with the enemy," Malema said on X (formerly Twitter) referring to the Democratic Alliance (DA), the nation's second-largest political party.
This is after the DA marked EFF as enemy number one on their list.
Besides, the DA is also not fond of the ANC going into coalition with the EFF and Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.
On Thursday night, Ramaphosa announced that they would form a GNU with all parties advancing South Africa.
The ANC failed to win the majority during the 2024 national and provincial elections after its 30 years of dominance in power.
After the ANC, DA, and Jacob Zuma's MK party, the EFF came in fourth in the election - no party was able to win a complete mandate to rule.
In another tweet, Malema said: “The arrogance continues even after the South African voters issued warning signs. You can't dictate the way forward as if you have won elections. We are not desperate for anything, ours is a generational mission.”
However, this comes as no shock because the EFF leader has so far rubbished the GNU idea.
Malema voiced his unhappiness to reporters last week at the national Results Operations Centre (ROC) of the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).
He said they would rather have a coalition government made up of parties with similar ideologies than a GNU made up of political rivals.
Although the terms are frequently used synonymously, a coalition usually arises, whereas a GNU usually includes all legislative parties.
“We not like Mandela, we don’t do a government of national unity. We don’t want it, we want a coalition, not GNU. We would end up with the wrong people,” he said.
IOL Politics