South African President joins key party meeting on new government formation

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met with senior officials of the African National Congress on Thursday to decide how to go about forming a government after the party lost its 30-year grip on power and left a post-election deadlock.

The party’s National Executive Committee was meeting in Johannesburg to work through a split within the party’s ranks over which direction to take. ANC lost its long-held majority in last week’s vote but remained the biggest party, and now needs some form of agreement with others to run Africa’s most industrialized country.

ANC has indicated it’s leaning toward a government of national unity that would bring together many of the political parties…