Building a better future: the need for national dialogue in South Africa

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa made a call for National Dialogue in his address to Parliament shortly after the 2024 elections. Judging by the volumes of fake news and hate speech and more importantly the painful levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality experienced by most South Africans, the President's call must be supported and expedited.

- Solly Phetoe is the Cosatu General Secretary.

Despite our daunting challenges as a nation, we should not forget the massive strides we have accomplished since our hard-won democratic breakthrough in 1994. Not only we have repealed the numerous racist laws that did so much damage, but the state today spends more than 61% of the Budget invested in uplifting working-class communities.

Yet with 43.1% overall and 72% youth unemployment rates, and our status as the world’s most unequal society, we dare not rest.

The damage done by the decade of state capture and corruption are well known, and whilst we applaud the progress in uprooting this cancer and reintroducing a sense of transparency and accountability across the state, much more needs to be done to end this shameful chapter, in particular sending those politicians, officials and businesspersons who stole billions from the public to prison.

2025 has seen a flurry of fake news on social media aimed at not only undermining South Africa's hard-won democracy and sovereignty but also our constitutionally sanctioned transformation journey.

Whilst some instances of racist incitement must be dealt with by law enforcement, others need to be tackled by the President's call to a National Dialogue and more importantly by a concrete set of actions afterwards.

Judging by the vitriolic of much of our public discourse, we need to pay much greater attention to our entrenched socio-economic challenges fueling this deep sense of alienation across parts of society.

These must be anchored in government’s Budget and legislation but also by tangible commitments by the private sector and ordinary citizens.