Join Associate Professor William Gumede for a Wits School of Governance Midweek Meetup conversation on 21 February 2024 at 12:30 until 14:00. Coalition governance is particularly useful in ethnically, regionally, religiously, and politically diverse societies, and low-trust societies. In such multiple diverse countries as in the case of South Africa, governing parties must be inclusive of all political, ethnic, language, regional and local differences. Often, coalition governance does this better than monopoly parties.

Coalition governance forces participants to regularly engage with each other, get to know the other side, and build relationships, if done effect, it is a good institution to build trust across political, racial, and class divides. Successful coalition governance cultures also transplants to the rest of societies – making diverse societies more open to compromise, to look after the interests of all communities and stakeholders and encourage a culture of conflict resolution.

This talk outlines cases of successful coalition governance in selected developing and developed countries, asked what made them successful and draw lessons from them for the prospect of national and provincial coalition governance in South Africa.

RSVP: refiloe.makhutle@wits.ac.za