{"id":68105,"date":"2024-06-07T17:50:10","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T17:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/07\/white-politician-poised-for-power-faces-hurdle-in-south-africa\/"},"modified":"2024-06-07T17:50:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T17:50:10","slug":"white-politician-poised-for-power-faces-hurdle-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/07\/white-politician-poised-for-power-faces-hurdle-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"White Politician Poised for Power Faces Hurdle in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nine months ago, John Steenhuisen, who leads South Africa\u2019s second-largest political party, the Democratic Alliance, stood before news cameras and signed an agreement not to work with the long-governing party, the African National Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo help me God,\u201d Mr. Steenhuisen said, raising his right hand and chuckling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But when the African National Congress failed to secure a governing majority in last week\u2019s election and on Thursday invited its political opponents to join forces<\/a> in a government of national unity, Mr. Steenhuisen moved to the front of the pack of political leaders looking to work with the party he had sworn off.<\/p>\n

He and the Democratic Alliance are now plowing ahead with the most important political negotiations in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994 and have drafted a document laying out their core principles for joining a government with the African National Congress, or A.N.C.<\/p>\n

The governing party\u2019s slide \u2014 taking just 40 percent of the vote, ending three decades of dominance<\/a> \u2014 has left Mr. Steenhuisen, 48, standing at the brink of his political dreams. As head of the party that took second place, with nearly 22 percent of the vote, Mr. Steenhuisen seems likely to get a leading role in the next government, political analysts say.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n