‘Hijacked' by the ANC? Maimane issues National Dialogue warning
The government has yet to confirm the details of the financial costs associated with the national dialogue.
The government says it is still finalising details of a controversial National Dialogue that some fear may be hijacked by the ANC.
The dialogue will give South Africans an opportunity to comment on the kind of country they want to live in and their concerns about the direction the country has taken.
Speaking to The Citizen about preparations for the dialogue, presidential spokesperson Vince Magwenya said the government will give full details once they have been finalised.
'Preparatory meetings are underway to finalise various details. The Eminent Persons Group will be meeting the president soon,' Magwenya said.
There has been a public outcry over the alleged proposed R700 million budget for the National Dialogue event.
Fix SA, not the ANC
Build One South Africa (Bosa) leader, Mmusi Maimane, told The Citizen that the dialogue should be treated as an occasion to respond to the country's problems and not those of the ANC.
Talks about a national dialogue first surfaced during the election season last year, when some polls suggested that the ANC would lose the elections for the first time since 1994.
'National dialogues occur post a significant crisis, be it a war or pandemic, so ideally we should have had one post the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, what is needed is efficacy in governance.
'So, our call is that the dialogue must depart from the National Development Plan (NDP) and build on from there. The crisis is not the ANC's electoral losses, it is our economy and lack of jobs.' Maimane said.
He said a plan should come out of this dialogue on how South Africa should be governed over the next 30 years.
'My suggestion is that a number of parties have a prior dialogue, explore realigning politics and offer a different model of how SA can be governed in the next 30 years.
'If we don't have the alternative, then a dialogue will be ANC hijacked and the outcomes will be the same,' he said.
ALSO READ: Clarity sought on alleged R700m cost of National Dialogue
South Africans must be part of the process
Meanwhile, the president of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), Bishop Sithembele Sipuka, urged all South Africans to actively participate in the National Dialogue.
'The National Dialogue that has been committed to will require all of us to bring our complaints without allowing them to be curses, to speak our truths without weaponising them.
'To listen to the pain beneath the accusations; today's prayers prepare us for that dialogue,' he said.
He described South Africa as a 'wrangling' nation in need of transformation and 'true reconciliation'.
'The fact of the matter is that we are a wrangling family. The recent events that have dominated our public conversation, the exodus of some citizens claiming persecution, the debates about the land and genocide, the accusations flying back and forth, those are not just political disagreements, they are the symptoms of a family that has never learnt how to be a family,' he said.
Sipuka said black South Africans are unhappy about the slow pace of economic transformation and redress, while white citizens expressed anger about corruption and the collapse of ethical governance.
'We hear, 'Where is the acknowledgement of corruption that has become endemic and is destroying this country?
'Where is the accountability for the collapse of structures and systems that once worked for municipalities that no longer function, and infrastructure that crumbles, and for services that fail the very same people they were meant to serve?'' he said.
NOW READ: 'Bring all to dialogue': Experts insist National Dialogue must be people-driven
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This article draws its inspiration the Institute's recently published report 'Managing Social Cohesion in diverse communities: Can South Africa draw lessons from United Arab Emirates'. ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.
