It's back to the negotiating table for the ANC and DA in Gauteng after efforts to form a provincial government of unity again failed on Monday.

Gauteng's 16 million residents will have to wait for longer before they have a new government, owing to yet another deadlock between the ANC and DA over fundamental issues including portfolio allocations and proportional representation.

On Monday evening, Premier Panyaza Lesufi was due to announce his cabinet but was reportedly instructed to halt the announcement at the 11th hour by his party's mother body after an agreement to form a government of provincial unity had not been reached with the DA, which garnered the second-highest number of votes in the province.

This was the second time the announcement had been postponed in the space of a week. Last week, Lesufi said the announcement had been cancelled because negotiators wanted more time.

Before the planned announcement on Monday, the DA, which received 27.4% of the provincial vote in the recent election, confirmed it would boycott the briefing as no deal had been reached with the ANC, which won 34.7% on 29 May.

Bad faith

DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga confirmed to Daily Maverick that a meeting between DA and ANC officials had taken place earlier in the day, but did not yield positive results, owing to the ANC's insistence on giving...