The ANC is looking for partners to form a government
South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) is at a crossroads in its efforts to find partners to form a coalition government with.
The party is facing this challenge after losing the majority of parliamentary seats in the elections held last week, for the first time since it came to power in South Africa 30 years ago.
Parties with the possibility of forming an alliance with the ANC party with different conflicting ideologies include the Democratic Alliance, former President Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto we Sizwe party and Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
The DA party and Inkatha Freedom party (IFP) have announced that they have prepared teams of their representatives for discussions with other parties. Those parties are part of the coalition established before the elections.
According to the constitution of South Africa, the new parliament that resulted from the election should start working within two weeks after the announcement of the election results and one of its initial duties is to elect the next President of the nation.
According to the election results, the ANC Party has won less than half of the seats in the South African Parliament by obtaining 159 seats out of 400. In the previous parliament, the ANC had 230 seats.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) - the party that came second in the election - has appointed a negotiating team as it begins coalition talks with the ANC.
