'National Dialogue is no talk shop'

But the Democratic Alliance has said it will boycott the dialogue that will take place over nine months, calling it a waste of time and money

- Nkateko Joseph Mabasa

National Dialogue steering committee chairperson Nkosinathi Biko has rejected criticism that the initiative is a money and time-wasting talk-shop.

The planned “society-wide” and “citizen-led” process from August 2025 to March 2026 will result in a national compact and plan of action to support the National Development Plan, which aims to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030, he told the Mail & Guardian.

President Cyril Ramaphosa first publicly mooted the idea of a national dialogue at his inauguration last year, after the general elections in which his ANC lost its national parliamentary majority, forcing it into a 10-party coalition that includes the former official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA).

Ramaphosa invited all parties, civil society, labour, business and other formations to discuss the critical problems facing the country, including poverty, crime and corruption.

On 28 June, the DA said it was withdrawing from the National Dialogue, calling it a waste of time and money in the face of a president who had shown a reluctance to sanction ANC ministers implicated in corruption.

“It is an electioneering ploy, at taxpayer expense, to gloss over the serious crises that the ANC has plunged South Africa into. Frankly, the president cannot even dialogue meaningfully with his own coalition partners, so there is little point in pretending there is any substance to an ANC-run national dialogue,” DA leader John Steenhuisen said.

“We will also actively mobilise against it to stop this obscene waste of R740 million — starting with a call on civil society to join us in demanding that the National Dialogue not proceed until President Ramaphosa fires ANC-corruption accused and other delinquents from the executive.”