SA needs Ubuntu-style National Dialogue

Dialogue as a function of national political discourse is not new

- MUSHTAK PARKER

COME next January or April 2026, if the Government's National Dialogue pathway sticks to its roll-out timetable of between six to nine months, the country will hopefully embark on its Second Convention whose mandate is “consolidation into a People’s Compact and implementation plan”.

The First Convention of the National Dialogue, held from August 15 to 16 at the University of South Africa, far from being “a successful event” as President Ramaphosa claims given the notable withdrawals and boycotts of key parties such as the DA, the MK and EFF, purportedly brought together representatives from government, business, civil society, and various sectors to establish a foundation for a comprehensive national dialogue that will help take South Africa forward.

Its catchall aspiration may be a people-centred initiative aimed at addressing the frustrations and needs of ordinary South Africans clobbered at least in the last two decades of 30 years of ANC rule by wanton self-en-richment, state capture, cronyism, incompetence, ineffectiveness and a failure to deliver on essential services bordering on the criminally negligent, which drastically compromised the democratic and socioeconomic gains made during Madiba's presidency, whose driving ambition was to start redressing the wrongs of over two centuries of colonialism, apartheid and white supremacy.

South African intellectuals and thought leaders on all sides may pontificate at length on the pathway, pitfalls and prerequisites towards that elusive national dialogue, whose sheer scope and stated ambition is seemingly couched in the rhetoric of hyperbole, exaggeration and aspiration.