The Multi-Party Charter (MPC), officially the Multi-Party Charter For South Africa (MPCSA), formerly known as the Moonshot Pact, was a pre-election agreement in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

that presented a

united front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political and/ ...

in the

2024 South African general election General elections were held in South Africa on 29 May 2024 to elect a new National Assembly (South Africa), National Assembly as well as the Provincial legislature (South Africa), provincial legislature in each of the Provinces of South Africa, ...

against the three-decade rule of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

(ANC) and the recent rise of the controversial

Economic Freedom Fighters The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is a South African communist and black nationalist political party. It was founded by expelled former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema, and his allies, on 26 July 20 ...

(EFF),

uMkhonto we Sizwe uMkhonto weSizwe (; abbreviated MK; ) was the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC), founded by Nelson Mandela in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre. Its mission was to fight against the South African government to brin ...

(MK Party) and

Patriotic Alliance The Patriotic Alliance (PA) is a right-wing political party in South Africa, formed in November 2013 by, among others, businessmen and convicted criminals Gayton McKenzie and Kenny Kunene. Since 2024, it is a part of the current South African ...

(PA). After the general election, the alliance joined the ANC-DA lead Grand national unity coalition government except

African Christian Democratic Party The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) is a South African political party founded in 1993. It is a conservative Christian Christian party based on Biblical principles. The leader of the party is Kenneth Meshoe. Following the 2016 municipa ...

and Action SA.

History

Early formation

In early 2023, the

(ANC) and

(EFF) formed a coalition in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

and

Ekurhuleni The City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (; ; ; ) is a metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of the East Rand region of Gauteng, a large suburban region east of Johannesburg. ''Ekurhuleni'' means "place of peace" in Xi ...

where the two parties hold MMC (member of the municipal council) positions whilst electing a mayor from a minority party. In April 2023, noting the prospects of an ANC/EFF national coalition, the Democratic Alliance (DA) leader

John Steenhuisen John Henry Steenhuisen ( ; born 25 March 1976) is a South African politician who is currently serving as Minister of Agriculture (South Africa), Minister of Agriculture since July 2024. He has been the leader of the Democratic Alliance (South Af ...

called for "like-minded" parties to join together to prevent a "doomsday coalition". On 17 August 2023, the pre-election agreement called the Multi-Party Charter was signed between the Democratic Alliance (DA),

Inkatha Freedom Party The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP; ) is a conservative political party in South Africa, which is a part of the current South African Third Cabinet of Cyril Ramaphosa, government of national unity together with the African National Congress (ANC). A ...

(IFP),

Freedom Front Plus The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus or FF+; , ''VF Plus'') is a right-wing political party in South Africa that was formed (as the Freedom Front) in 1994. It is led by Corné Mulder. Since 2024, it is a part of the current South African Third Cabin ...

(FF Plus),

ActionSA ActionSA is a political party in South Africa established in 2020 by Herman Mashaba, a former mayor of Johannesburg, shortly after he left the Democratic Alliance (DA). The party states that it has been established to "set South Africa free fr ...

, Independent South African National Civic Organisation (ISANCO), United Independent Movement (UIM) and Spectrum National Party (SNP). The charter group held 108 out of the 400 seat

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

. On 7 October 2023, the

(ACDP) announced it would be joining the charter, increasing the charter's seat count from 108 to 112 in the 400 seat

. On 14 December 2023, the Multi-Party Charter announced that two new parties joined the group: the North West-based

United Christian Democratic Party The United Christian Democratic Party is a minor political party in South Africa. It was founded by Lucas Mangope, leader of the Bophuthatswana bantustan in 1997, as a successor to the Tswana National Party, and led by him for the first fiftee ...

(UCDP) and the

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

-based Ekhethu People’s Party (EPP). The Unemployed National Party (UNP) also became a member of the charter.

Disputes

On 16 February 2024, the Multi-Party Charter rejected the application of the

Referendum Party The Referendum Party was a Eurosceptic, single-issue party, single-issue political party that was active in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 1997. The party's sole objective was for a referendum to be held on the nature of the UK's membership ...

(RP), due to the party's singular support for

Cape independence Cape independence (Afrikaans: ''Kaapse onafhanklikheid''; isiXhosa: ''inkululeko yaseKapa''), also known by the portmanteau CapeXit, is a secessionist political movement that seeks the independence of the Western Cape province (alongside Afrika ...

. This is despite the

(FF Plus) party also being in favor of

. Critics claimed that this casts doubt on the charter's claimed support for political

decentralisation Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those related to planning and decision-making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group and gi ...

2024 elections

Three of the charter's eleven members failed to garner the minimum number of signatures required by the

Independent Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

and will not be contesting in the

: the Spectrum National Party, Ekhethu People's Party and Unemployed National Party. During the 2024 election, the parties in the charter collectively won 119 of the 400 seats in the

, increasing the number of seats by 7. The Democratic Alliance (DA) and

(IFP) gained 3 seats each while the

(FF Plus) and

(ACDP) lost 4 and 1 seats respectively. The newly formed

underperformed expectations as the party only garnered 1.2% of the votes, which translated to 6 seats. On 6 June 2024,

announced they would leave the Multi-Party Charter as the party believed the charter had breached the agreement by considering forming a coalition with the ANC. This decision reduced the charter's seat count from 119 to 113 in the 400 seat

.https://x.com/Action4SA/status/1798649727057310062

Priorities and principles

At the joint press statement by the six founding parties the coalition government's priorities were laid out as: * Growing the

economy An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

* Creating jobs *

Energy security Energy security is the association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption (as opposed to household energy insecurity). Access to cheaper energy has become essential to the functioning of modern ...

* Combatting

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

* Combatting

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

and

drugs A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestio ...

* Quality

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

for all * High quality

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

* Quality

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

for all * Relieving South African households living in

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

The coalition's agreed-upon principles, called "Shared Governing Principles", are: * The

South African constitution The Constitution of South Africa is the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the republic, it sets out the human rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of th ...

rule of law The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...

, and

equality Equality generally refers to the fact of being equal, of having the same value. In specific contexts, equality may refer to: Society * Egalitarianism, a trend of thought that favors equality for all people ** Political egalitarianism, in which ...

before the law * Decentralising the power of

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

* A transparent government * Zero tolerance towards corruption * Efficient spending of public money by the

* An open

market economy A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production, and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand. The major characteristic of a mark ...

Evidence-based policies Evidence-based policy (also known as evidence-informed policy or evidence-based governance) is a concept in public policy that advocates for policy decisions to be grounded on, or influenced by, rigorously established objective evidence. This c ...

* Promoting

non-racialism Non-racialism, aracialism or antiracialism is a South African ideology rejecting racism and "racialism" while affirming liberal democratic ideals. History Non-racialism became the official state policy of South Africa after April 1994, and it is ...

and unity in the country's diversity

Political parties

The table below lists the parties in the charter. As of 2024, the parties in the charter collectively hold 113 of the 400 seats in the

Main parties

Other parties

Former member parties

Notes

References

{{South African political parties 2023 establishments in South Africa Political parties established in 2023 Political party alliances in South Africa