Is National Dialogue a distraction?

There's been a lot written about President Cyril Ramaphosa's upcoming National Dialogue.

- KEVIN RITCHIE

Some of it overwrought, some quite profound, but the biggest question has been why?

There is an argument that it's nothing more than a distraction. There's the typical row over who has been invited and who isn't. There's also the historical context: we've had national lekgotlas before; Codesa, which helped us peacefully and properly extricate South Africa from centuries of colonialism and decades of apartheid.

There have been commissions: from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into human rights abuses during apartheid to the Zondo commission into state capture, not forgetting the Farlam commission into Marikana or the Moseneke commission into Life Esidimeni.