South African Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has announced that the election of the next president and National Assembly speaker will be held on Friday at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

In a statement on Monday, Mr Zondo said he would administer the oath of office to the newly elected 400 lawmakers in the first sitting of the parliament before the president and speaker are elected.

“During the first sitting of parliament, the chief justice will administer the prescribed oath or affirmation, as the case may be, to members of the National Assembly,” the statement reads.

After administering the oath of office to the parliamentarians, Mr Zondo will preside over the election of the National Assembly speaker and “over the election of the president.”

The South African Constitution stipulates that the election of president and speaker will take place 14 days after the election.

South Africans went to the polls on May 27 to elect lawmakers in a national election that was adjudged to be the country’s most competitive election.

For the first time in 30 years, the African National Congress (ANC) party, South Africa’s ruling party since 1994, failed to win majority seats in the national election.

Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC polled 40.21 per cent of the votes cast, a huge decline from the 57 per cent it polled in 2019. John Steenhuisn’s Democratic Alliance (DA) came second in the election, polling 22 per cent of the vote cast.

Newly formed former President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe polled 15 per cent, while radical Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighter party polled 9 per cent.

Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa said he would form a government of national unity with opposition parties.

“We invite political parties to form a government of national unity as the best option to move our country forward,” Mr Ramaphosa said in a live broadcast on Thursday night. “This moment calls for the broadest unity of the people of South Africa.”