The uMkhonto Wesizwe party has criticised the formation of a government of national unity while announcing that the party would be joining the Progressive Caucus in Parliament.

uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party leader Jacob Zuma has referred to the recently formed Government of National Unity (GNU) as "nonsense", adding that the party's legal counsel has been instructed to dispute the manner in which the public broadcaster, the SABC, has been describing the political pact.

The GNU consists of the ANC, DA and IFP, and together they have an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly. Reports have emerged that Gayton McKenzie's Patriotic Alliance and Patricia de Lille's Good have joined the GNU.

"We have asked our lawyers to write a letter of demand to the SABC to stop deliberately misleading South Africans by using terms like GNU or GPU [government of provincial unity] to refer to present sellout coalitions. This is nothing but a return of apartheid and colonialism," Zuma said during a press briefing in Johannesburg on Sunday evening.

"There is no government of national unity in SA. There is a white-led unholy alliance between the DA and the ANC of [President Cyril] Ramaphosa. It is sponsored by big business, and it's for the benefit of the markets and not the people," he claimed.

Zuma's press conference follows the MK party's decision not to attend the first...