From Dialogue to Reckoning: What South Africa Needs Now
Thirty years into South Africa's democracy, we must move beyond superficial dialogue to a reckoning that addresses deep-rooted inequalities and demands real change, writes Faiez Jacobs.
Image: IOL / Ron AI
'The People Shall Govern.' Not as metaphor, not as sentiment. As a promise. And a demand.
Thirty years into our democracy, South Africa does not need another listening tour, another facilitated workshop, or another high-level roundtable with branded lanyards. We need something deeper. Something braver. Something long overdue.
We need a reckoning.
The recent announcement by President Ramaphosa that South Africa will convene a National Dialogue, coordinated through NEDLAC and guided by an 'Eminent Persons Group', has stirred predictable fanfare and deep scepticism. It is not the idea of dialogue that alarms us. It is the fact that, for too long, dialogue has been deployed in South Africa not to deliver justice, but to delay it. In place of delivery, we have convened. In place of structural change, we have moderated. In place of urgency, we have performed unity.
We have been here before. And we cannot afford to be here again.
A country built on dialogue but rarely on equal terms
From Kliptown in 1955 to CODESA in 1991, South Africa's path to democracy was shaped by dialogue. But these moments were not equal meetings of minds they were unequal negotiations between a people in struggle and a regime in retreat. We must never forget that our political transition was never designed to dismantle all systems of power. It was a ceasefire, not a complete transformation. The elite pact that underpinned our 1994 breakthrough brought democratic rights but postponed economic redress.
Today, those delays have caught up with us.
We are the world's most unequal society. Millions of black South Africans still live under conditions that echo the structural geography of apartheid. Youth unemployment hovers above 60%. Public services are failing. State capture hollowed our institutions. Violence, corruption, and despair creep into the marrow of daily life.
And in this fragile, fractured context, we are now asked again to talk.
But before we do, we must ask: Who is asking for this dialogue? Why now? What for?
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Dialogue, or Deflection?
Let us be honest. Much of the dialogue proposed today risks becoming elite-driven spectaclea performance of inclusivity without power-sharing. A repackaging of reconciliation in times of political turbulence. A soft cushion against the hard edges of growing public rage.
This new National Dialogue comes with high-profile names, big halls, logos and language like 'shared vision' and 'renewed compact.' But language is not justice. Logos do not build clinics. And dialogue without delivery breaks trust.
The danger is not in talking. The danger is in pretending that talk is enough.
Our Constitution already provides for participatory democracy. Parliament's committees, ward committees, SGB's, CPF's, RDP forums, municipal IDPs, Chapter 9 institutions all of these exist to facilitate public voice and state responsiveness. If we are serious about rebuilding national consensus, why not invest in strengthening those platforms rather than creating new ones?
The answer is clear: we don't have a participation problem we have a delivery problem. We don't lack dialogue. We lack action.
The Real Dialogue Happening Outside Power
While government convenes its forums, real dialogue happens daily in the silence of broken clinics. In the queues at SASSA. In the burnt tyres of protest. In the quiet rage of mothers burying sons lost to gang bullets or hunger. That is the unscripted, unmoderated, rawdialogue of a society crying for repair, real hope, real change.
To those who say this dialogue is necessary for cohesion: let us be clear. Cohesion cannot be built on inequality. Reconciliation cannot be revived while restitution is denied. Real unity requires more than slogans it requires justice that is seen and felt.
And to those who say this dialogue is about the future: we say this the future cannot be imagined until the past is confronted. Until the unfinished business of our transition is faced head-on. That business is redistribution. Dignity. Work. Land. Reform.
From National Dialogue to National Reckoning
What South Africa needs now is not a dialogue. It is a Reckoning.
A National Reckoning Plan time-bound, costed, public, and accountable.
Here is what it would look like:
1. Corruption Accountability
• Dedicated anti-corruption court.
• Public progress dashboard updated quarterly.
• No dialogue required. Just prosecutions.
2. Public Service Restoration
• Professionalise the civil service.
• Forensic audits across departments. Get rid of deed wood. Merit and competence based deployment.
• Treasury-approved clean-up plan. No slogans needed.
3. Violence and Safety Compact
• Dedicated gender-based violence units in all provinces.
• Resourced SAPS precincts in crime hotspots.
• Community-policing forums with real authority.
• Measurable 3-year targets to reduce violence by 70%.
4. Land and Housing
• Release state-owned land for housing and smallholder farming.
• Title deeds for informal settlements.
• Geospatial planning with public oversight.
• Justice, not just consultation.
5. Youth Jobs and Township Economies
• R10 billion fund for township infrastructure and small enterprise support.
• Remove licensing red tape for spaza shops and street traders.
• Localise procurement in municipalities.
• Youth opportunity desks in every ward.
6. A Real Platform for the People
• Strengthen Parliament's portfolio committees as dialogue forums.
• Fund civic education, SGBs, and ward committees.
• Turn Parliament into the true arena of people's voice not hotels and ballrooms.
Dialogue Must Not Substitute Delivery
Dialogue is not inherently dangerous. But dialogue without consequence is corrosive. It drains hope. It teaches citizens that participation is performance. That their voices are heard, but never acted upon. That engagement is a dead-end.
The greatest threat to democracy is not apathy. It is the experience of being listened to but ignored.
This time, there will be no Mandela to hold us together when we fail. This time, failure will explode. Not into civil war, but into permanent distrust, institutional erosion, and a vacuum that extremists, secessionists, and seditionists are already preparing to fill.
What Must Be Done
This National Dialogue, must be grounded in three non-negotiables:
1. Equal Participation
No one should be asked to "participate" unless they are also being resourced, empowered, and heard. Give logistical and financial support to informal workers, rural voices, and youth collectives.
2. Binding Outcomes
Every agreement must be costed, time-bound, and linked to implementation agents. We need deliverables, we need accountability, we need delivery, not declarations and leaders who are not only shocked and surprised.
3. Institutional Anchoring
The dialogue must be tied into Parliament and the Executives and all levels, not orbitaround and away from it. All outcomes must flow into keeping elected leaders accountable from the top, our President, Ministers, Premiers, MEC's, Mayors, MMC's to councillors via committee work, legislative reform, and budget planning. Let's make Performance Management work and delivery real.
The Real Dialogue is in Delivery
Dialogue is not neutral. It either reinforces power or redistributes it. South Africans don't need to be heard again. They need to be answered.
The ANC must not lead from caution or convenience. We must lead from courage. From conviction. And from truth. The promise of 1994 has been deferred too long. Now is the time to deliver on it not through words, but through work.
Let us move from dialogue to reckoning. From performance to policy. From symbolism to substance. Let this be the generation that made justice real. Let this be the moment that reclaimed delivery as democracy.
* Faiez Jacobs is a former Member of Parliament, political organiser, and strategic facilitator committed to inclusive governance, ethical leadership, and the renewal of South Africa's democratic promise.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.
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