Beyond the GNU — how opposition parties must adapt to compromise and power

Résumé détaillé

There is a political consequence of South Africa’s Government of National Unity that deserves closer attention: when former opponents agree to govern together, they do not…

There is a political consequence of South Africa’s Government of National Unity that deserves closer attention: when former opponents agree to govern together, they do not necessarily bring their supporters with them.

The African National Congress (ANC) and Democratic Alliance (DA) entered national government together after the 2024 election, following the ANC’s loss of its parliamentary majority. Their partnership was presented as a practical response to a changed electoral landscape. Yet the 2026 local government elections have exposed a difficult question about what happens when parties that once defined themselves against each other begin sharing power.

Who, in such an arrangement, is responsible for the compromises? Who receives credit for what works? And what happens to the parties that built their identities around opposing the very people with whom they now govern?

His explanation is politically self-interested, as any party leader’s account of an electoral setback is bound to be, and should be examined carefully. It is not proof that the Government of National Unity caused the EFF’s losses. But it raises a question that reaches beyond the EFF: can political cooperation at the top change the meaning of opposition at the ballot box?

The numbers make the question worth considering. The EFF received 6.22% of the national vote in the 2026 local government elections, down from 10.31% in 2021, losing more than 612,000 votes, according to Malema’s account of the results reported by Daily Maverick and the Mail & Guardian. The ANC, meanwhile, garnered 30.76% of the national vote, while the DA received about 24.64%.

These figures describe a changing political landscape. They do not, by themselves, explain why individual voters changed their choices. But they make it harder to assume that South Africans understand political parties through the old distinctions alone.

For years, the ANC and DA offered voters sharply contrasting political identities.

The EFF positioned itself…

T…

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