Economy, unemployment: Key issues facing South Africa’s new cabinet

South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa (CL) and his wife Tshepo Motsepe (CR) arrive ahead of Ramaphosa’s inauguration as President at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on June 19, 2024. (Photo by PHILL MAGAKOE / POOL / AFP)

Johannesburg, South Africa — South Africa’s new government, where the ruling ANC will share power for the first time after losing its outright parliamentary majority in elections last month, will have to tackle various issues vexing a frustrated population.

Former opposition parties will hold 12 of 32 ministers in a broad coalition that includes the center-right Democratic Alliance (DA), the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and other smaller parties.

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President Cyril Ramaphosa led tough negotiations to balance demands for key ministerial posts from his party and its new allies and mediate diverging views to come up with a common policy agenda on the economy and other pressing matters.

Here are some of the main challenges and priorities that the cabinet will face as it ushers in what it calls a government of national unity (GNU).

Poverty and unemployment 

South Africa’s economy features lackluster growth and record unemployment, key issues which both the ANC and the centrist DA, the two largest groupings in the new government, say are a top priority.

Millions of people live in poverty in the country where 33 percent are unemployed out of a population of 62 million — far more than when the ANC came into power — and 28 million rely on welfare grants to survive.

In the GNU’s statement of intent, job creation, investment and fiscal sustainability were among the goals listed to remedy the weakened economy that has frustrated South Africans and dented the ANC’s popularity.

Foreign policy 

Agreeing on a foreign policy framework may be contentious under the GNU, considering the war in Gaza and other foreign policy flashpoints.

For months Ramaphosa and his party officials have sported keffiyeh scarves in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians, whom they have historically supported.

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Under the ANC, South Africa brought a case before the International Court of Justice alleging the Israeli military operation in Gaza, launched in response to the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants, amounts to “genocide”.

While DA has supported a two-state solution, the party has been accused of being pro-Israel by many South Africans.

“One side’s genocide could be another side’s freedom fighting,” DA leader John Steenhuisen told the state broadcaster earlier this year.

Last year the two parties clashed regarding the ANC’s close diplomatic ties with Moscow with which it maintains historic relations dating back to the struggle against apartheid.

The DA took legal action to force the ANC government to arrest Vladimir Putin if the Russian President were to attend a planned summit in the country.

No water, no electricity 

South Africa is the continent’s most industrialized nation, but access to basic services such as water, electricity and refuse collection is a recurring source of anger for tens of millions of inhabitants.

Due to a shortfall in energy production and frequent breakdowns at ageing power stations, the nation has for years suffered from economy-crippling, rolling power cuts that at their worst last up to 12 hours a day.

Political parties, who have formed coalition governments on a local level for a few years, have often played the blame game for lack of services.

Rapes and murders 

Between October and December South Africa recorded almost 84 murders a day, according to police statistics.

Apart from countries at war, South Africa’s per capita homicide rate is one of the highest in the world.

In addition to other crimes, the broad coalition government has made gender-based violence a priority in the country where a rape is recorded every 11 minutes, according to official figures.

The DA has proposed distributing policing power to the country’s nine provinces in order to tackle crippling crime, a break with the ANC’s current centralised national policing power structure.