Reflections on the National Dialogue

THE First Convention of the National Dialogue is happening amid some controversy.

- ASHLEY GREEN-THOMPSON

There are political parties from left and right of the spectrum who have declared they will boycott the entire thing, for quite different reasons.

The legacy foundations of the Tutus, Sisulus, Biko and others will boycott the First Convention that is happening as I write this, but not the entire dialogue process.

They say there has not been enough time to prepare, and I sympathise with that. But there has been a litany of negative reactions to the president's announcement of the dialogue.

Many have argued that we know what’s wrong with South Africa and don’t need a national dialogue about crime, corruption, unemployment, poor public service, and all the other things that are betrayals of the promise of liberation. It will just be a talk shop that will distract us from making the tough decisions needed to fix our problems. And it’s a waste of money. A very telling critique from some quarters is that it will be an elite-driven process, essentially a conversation whose agenda and execution are determined by people with political and economic power.