After its most recent elections, South Africa has a new, old president. It’s still Cyril Ramaphosa and he still belongs to the African National Congress (anc), but everything is different now.

For the first time in its history, the anc has lost its parliamentary majority. Ramaphosa is in charge, but he’s been forced to share the throne with the Democratic Alliance (DA), formerly the main opposition. Many of the anc’s votes went to the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe Party (mkp) led by disgraced ex-president Jacob Zuma, who was hounded out of office on corruption charges. The rabid and radical Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters experienced a humbling election that seems to be forcing a strategic pivot.

In short, South Africa is divided. Two parties that disagree on almost every policy point will be leading a country together. A former president—who is still a member of the anc—is heading the main opposition. A political firebrand who promised to “kill the boers” has joined that opposition movement.

This is the motley crew meant to rescue South Africa from record unemployment and crime, crumbling public services and corruption.

What could go wrong?

The New Coalition Government

In South Africa, to have outright rule of the country, a political party needs to win at least 50 percent of the vote. The anc had always managed to do that, which meant its leader was president, it had the most seats in Parliament, and it could independently shape national policy.

Not anymore.

After receiving just 40 percent of the vote, the anc is forced to partner with the centrist DA, which won 21 percent of the vote, and other parties to go over the threshold.

Many in South Africa are excited by the result. The general consensus is that the electorate’s rebuke of the anc and the insertion of the DA into government has diverted South Africa from a Zimbabwe-esque implosion.

The pro-free market DA in particular seems cause for optimism. Its track record of job creation and service delivery on a municipal level offers hope, while its anti-corruption focus promises proper management of taxpayer funds.

The DA also opposes several of the anc’s social welfare policies, typified by the Black Economic Empowerment act—South Africa’s version of diversity, equity and inclusion policies. While promoting racism, the act has provided a slush fund for politicians to line their own pockets.

The two coalition partners also disagree on several contentious policies such as land expropriation without compensation, state-owned enterprises and labor market regulation.

But the details of the coalition mean that this matters little. For policy action or reform, there needs to be 60 percent consensus within Parliament. Since the anc and the DA make up exactly that amount, neither party can enact or change any policy without the wholehearted support of the other.

Essentially, this promises five years of stasis.

But the DA isn’t as anti-socialist as it might appear. It supports social welfare programs, free universal health care, free primary and secondary education, low-income housing and free water and electricity for low-income households.

The so-called Government of National Unity is a house divided. But the DA’s socialist leanings are the reason South Africa is where it is.

Failing to recognize the danger and arrest the slide toward communism is why South Africa transformed from the most prosperous country on the continent to one on the verge of collapse.

The coalition partner responsible for optimism might actually be a reason for major concern.

The Opposition

The anc could have made a coalition with the mkp. They are much more ideologically aligned than their current partners. But there is bad blood between the two parties.

Former President Jacob Zuma made it clear that working with Ramaphosa, his former vice president, was out of the question. Ramaphosa’s presidency was largely built on rooting out the corruption that typified Zuma’s, which required throwing Zuma under the bus.

The strong support for Zuma within the anc core is the roughly 10 percent that denied the anc the outright majority in these elections. With the anc’s current collaboration with the DA, which many perceive as nothing more than “the white-led party,” Zuma’s supporters are labeling the anc as apartheid collaborators. Even some anc supporters are against the coalition.

That’s a call that seems to have given the red-beret clad firebrand Julius Malema a direction and purpose. “We are not against the [Government of National Unity]; we are against the DA,” he told reporters at a press conference. “They represent imperialism, racism, white supremacy—represent backwardness.”

He refused to join the coalition, but the anc apparently didn’t want him. Malema seems to have lost momentum; many are celebrating what they view as his gradual slide out of South African politics. But he might not be so easy to get rid of.

“The [Economic Freedom Fighters] continues to be a radical, militant and revolutionary economic emancipation movement and will not compromise principle on the altar of political and opportunistic convenience,” said Malema. “Ours is not an immediate achievement. Ours is a generational mission, and that mission will be attained in our lifetime.”

What’s Next for South Africa?

It’s easy to believe this new coalition government heralds a brighter future for South Africa. There certainly are some causes for optimism. But the warning signs are already there.

The terms of the coalition mean the DA can’t make any effective change. Even if it could, its socialist leanings represent everything that brought South Africa to where it is now.

The opposition parties seem ready for violence. Security forces are being deployed in the Zuma strongholds as the threat of a violent response to the election results grows. Malema’s party is known to foment racial hatred and violence and might be doubly effective with the help of Zuma’s new party, especially with the white-led DA as a lightning rod.

On the surface, South Africa’s future appears balanced on a knife-edge. The reality is far worse.

In 1997, we warned of disaster looming “on the horizon of South Africa, as godless communism has its day bringing an anc-dominated government to power with the apparent full endorsement of Western society!”

Expect South Africa 2.0 to be more of the same.

“[We] are witnessing the fall of South Africa as a prelude to the accelerating descent of the United States and of the once great British company of nations,” our e-book South Africa in Prophecy states. “South Africa is the first major domino to fall in what will become a free fall into slavery of those once mightiest nations on Earth!”

As fast as the U.S. and Commonwealth nations are falling, expect South Africa to collapse first. This coalition government will only accelerate that decline and might even bring it about.

But there is hope for South Africa. A united government is coming that will finally eliminate corruption, crime and poverty, and ensure proper service delivery for all citizens of every race, sex and age—not just in South Africa but the world over.

To learn about this hope, request our free booklet The Wonderful World Tomorrow—What It Will Be Like.