South Africa's newly-elected parliament meets Friday and is expected to re-elect President Cyril Ramaphosa to form an unprecedented coalition government after his ruling ANC cobbled together a coalition deal.
The African National Congress leader had called for a government of national unity after his party lost its absolute majority in last month's general election, but two major leftist parties shunned the deal.
Instead, according to ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula, the government would "gravitate to the centre" -- backed by the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA), the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and several smaller parties.
"We have reached a breakthrough on the common agreement that we need to work together," Mbalula told a news conference in Cape Town, confirming that the radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) had refused to join what he still called a unity government.
Graft-tainted former president Jacob Zuma's new electoral vehicle, the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), has disputed the May 29 election results and warned it would boycott Friday's sitting of the 400-member assembly. Mbalula said the ANC was talking to MK, but had not reached agreement.
Ramaphosa is now expected to win the secret ballot of MPs to confirm his re-election.
That would see him sworn in next week in Pretoria and then unveil his new cabinet, presumably including ministers from both the ANC and the former opposition parties in the coalition.
- Post-apartheid democracy -
"The ANC is going into this under the guise of a government of national unity, but really it isn't," political analyst Dr. Hlengiwe Ndlovu of the Wits University School of Governance told AFP. "It's more like coalition talks."
For 30 years since the advent of post-apartheid democracy, the late Nelson Mandela's African National Congress has held an absolute majority and elected a president from its own ranks.
But the former liberation movement -- weakened by corruption and recent governments' poor economic performance -- saw its support collapse at the May 29 election, leaving it with only 159 seats out of 400.
