How South Africa’s rival parties ‘found each other’ in a last-ditch deal that saved a president WHIO TV 7 and WHIO Radio [Video]

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — (AP) — South Africa’s main political rivals are now partners in government after they came together in a last-minute coalition deal that ensured President Cyril Ramaphosa was dramatically reelected with cross-party support, and a struggling country was given a boost.

The agreement was only sealed on the sidelines of a marathon parliamentary session on Friday, allowing Ramaphosa to be reelected hours later for a second term with the help of opposition lawmakers who were once his loudest critics.

The coalition between Ramaphosa’s African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance — South Africa’s only major party with a white leader — means Africa’s most industrialized country can now form a government after a political deadlock that threatened its economic stability.

More than that, it has rejuvenated a nation weighed down bypoverty, unemployment, corruption, crime and failing public services. South Africans see a glimmer of hope in the alliance between two parties with very different ideologies …