South Africa’s African National Congress is considering the formation of a national unity government with willing rival parties, according to the party’s national working committee.

The party’s National Executive Committee, the ANC’s top decision-making body, will meet on Thursday to discuss the proposal. The former liberation party has been locked in talks over how to form the next government after it crashed to 40.2 per cent of the vote, losing its 30-year parliamentary majority, in last week’s shock election result.

“We are not new to constituting a government of national unity,” said Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, ANC spokesperson, referring to Nelson Mandela’s first government, which included members of the defeated National party as well as the Inkatha Freedom party. “We did that in 1994.”