CRACKS have appeared in South Africa’s new coalition government as the Democratic Alliance (DA) took the African National Congress (ANC) to court on Thursday over a pre-election speech in May given by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The court papers were submitted to the Electoral Court by the DA in May before it entered into a coalition with the ANC, but it decided to still go ahead with the case.

The DA asked the court to deduct 1 per cent of the vote received by the ANC in the May 29 national election and fine Ramaphosa, the ANC leader, the equivalent of £8,500 and his party £4,220, over what it argues was a presidential address that was used for election campaigning and amounted to an abuse of office.