South Africa’s election: entering the unknown

South Africa’s final election results confirmed that support for the ANC fell far short of a majority, leaving it reliant on a coalition with one of the larger opposition parties to stay in power. The newsflow over the weekend suggests that the chances of an ANC coalition with the main opposition Democratic Alliance has increased, which has been welcomed by investors. But while an ANC-DA coalition would probably focus on tackling the economy’s growth and public finance problems (certainly more so than an ANC coalition with MK and/or EFF), any such coalition would probably be very fragile.