S.Africa's president prioritises growth, jobs as parliament opens

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa committed his new coalition government to growth, job creation and poverty reduction as he opened parliament Thursday following the first elections in which his ruling ANC lost its absolute majority.

Addressing a joint sitting of the two houses of parliament after a grand opening ceremony including a display of military pageantry, Ramaphosa, 71, also listed tackling the high cost of living and cutting red tape among his administration's goals.

"We are committed to improve the well-being of our country and its people through inclusive growth, the creation of jobs and the reduction of poverty," the president told lawmakers in Cape Town.

Ramaphosa's long-dominant African National Congress (ANC) was forced into an uneasy coalition with nine other parties after May's elections, having lost its absolute parliamentary majority for the first time since democracy in 1994.

Damaged by graft scandals and a poor economic record, the party that led the fight against apartheid won only 40 percent of the votes.

That result reflected deepening disillusionment with unemployment at a record 33 percent and high poverty and crime rates.

In striking the unprecedented power-sharing deal, the ANC aligned itself with the centre-right, a move some analysts said would reassure investors.

In his address, Ramaphosa promised business-friendly reforms, such as an overhaul of the graft-ridden public service, and to "massively increase" investment in infrastructure.

But the former trade unionist added that growth must be "inclusive" and "support the empowerment of black South Africans and women and all those who in the past had been relegated to the fringes of our nation's economy."

- Vociferous opposition -

Addressing one of the most sensitive issues in South Africa, the president also pledged increased funding for reforms that will transfer state land to communities.

Access to land is one of the priorities of the vociferous opposition to Ramaphosa's coalition led by the leftist uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) parties, which demand the expropriation of land owned by white South Africans.

The MK and EFF have banded with three other smaller groups in an anti-capitalist alliance that has 102 seats in the 400-seat parliament.

Opposition alliance leaders told reporters Thursday that they would also push for the nationalisation of the national bank and mines.

Impeached judge John Hlophe, an MK official who is leader of the opposition in parliament, denounced the ruling coalition as intended to "preserve the current power of white monopoly capital in the economy, give advantage to white privilege".

The ANC has retained 20 cabinet positions in the new government, including the key portfolios of foreign affairs, finance, defence, justice and police.

Its largest coalition partner -- long-time critic the pro-market Democratic Alliance (DA) -- has six portfolios, including agriculture, public works and communication.

Six other ministries were distributed among the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party, anti-immigration Patriotic Alliance, the right-wing Afrikaans party Freedom-Front Plus and other smaller parties.

Although the cabinet held its first meeting over the weekend in a cordial atmosphere, observers say trouble might lay ahead from within and outside the new coalition.

"There is a momentum of goodwill that seems to have been built up in the first few weeks of the government of national unity," analyst Daniel Silke told AFP.

"The question is whether this momentum is sustainable".

From foreign policy to a national health reform dear to the left-leaning ANC but loathed by the DA, there is much the coalition partners disagree on.

But DA leader John Steenhuisen was upbeat about Ramaphosa's address.

"It was a synthesis of what we want to see to rescue our country," he told SABC television. "A growing economy is the rising tide that lifts all boats."