While the country navigates the intricacies of the Government of National Unity (GNU), one warning is that we should not rely on party political alignment or coalition alignment for healthy intergovernmental relations.

Jaap de Visser, a University of the Western Cape Law Professor and SA Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law, and Development at the Dullah Omar Institute, made this comment during a recent webinar entitled Revisiting Coalitions: The Impact of the GNU on Governance, Intergovernmental Relations (IGR), and Local Government.

It was hosted by the Dullah Omar Institute, the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office and the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

During the discussion, Prof De Visser highlighted the challenges and opportunities presented by the GNU for stable governance and IGR, but suggested that what we have is GNU Lite.

He added that the outcome of the elections at the national, provincial, and local government levels can best be described as a scrambled egg.

"It's not really a government of national unity in the proper sense of the word because, of course, it doesn't cut across the full spectrum of political parties. But what's in a name? It is definitely a broad spectrum of political parties that joined the government of national unity, and it's really promising and exciting to see what's going to be lying ahead. Yes, there are criticisms and remarks that we may have, but it's a remarkable and very impressive achievement in a short space of time against all odds," said Prof De Visser.

The full impact of this national political configuration is not yet known on IGR, but he cautioned against relying solely on political party alignment for functional intergovernmental relations: "The GNU provides an opportunity for greater political willingness to engage across party lines, but technical and bureaucratic issues must still be addressed."

"We must continue to work doggedly at all those systems and structures that are part of our intergovernmental architecture. The political party and coalition alignment, by its very nature, can be, will be, and may be temporary. It's not a fixed arrangement. Politics can change, coalition dynamics can change and can fall apart on the basis of one particular crisis. Even if different organs of states across the system of government used to belong to the same political party, intergovernmental relations would often still not work properly. So there's work to be done on the system of intergovernmental relations regardless of the existence of the government of national unity."

Panelists reached consensus that South Africa needs some sort of methodology, protocol or convention for forming coalition governments that ensures the process is transparent and reflects the will of the electorate.