Why the National Dialogue will be a colossal waste of time and money

How will the president ensure that the GNU accepts and enforces dialogue decisions?

- KAIZER NYATSUMBA

Set to feature prominently in the public discourse this year is the so-called National Dialogue, a superfluous event if ever there was one.

The dialogue is bound to be no more than an opportunity for a fed-up citizenry to vent. It is a giant PR exercise from which nothing concrete will eventuate.

Why do I say so? Well, for the simple reason that South Africa has a duly elected Parliament and a Government of National Unity (GNU), which are legally entitled to run their respective affairs. Neither structure will take instruction from an unelected National Dialogue.

Let us make comparisons with the original Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa), which I had the privilege of covering in the run-up to our inaugural democratic elections in 1994.