The National Dialogue needs to be radically reconfigured

This so-called national conversation risks becoming theatre unless it embraces transparency, grassroots voices and measurable commitments

- Tebogo Khaas

In theory, a “national dialogue” sounds necessary ~ a grand, inclusive conversation designed to chart a course out of sweeping structural crises. But in practice, the current iteration risks becoming a hollow vanity project: a carefully choreographed performance by political elites, masquerading as transformative reckoning but bereft of transparency, tangible commitment or ownership by the people.

This National Dialogue, commissioned by President Cyril Ramaphosa, is emerging less as a path of healing and more as a varnish meticulously applied to cover over the deep cracks threatening the very foundations of our society.

Accountability? It is nowhere to be seen. Instead, we witness a calibrated, closed-door process that echoes the exclusivity of watershed interventions such as the Convention for a Democratic South Africa, where certain voices were granted airtime and others, particularly those of the marginalised, were systematically excluded.

Among the most sour ironies of this spectacle is how it masks as progress what is really a retreat from accountability. The government drapes itself in the language of “dialogue”, “listening” and “consensus-building”, yet consistently fails to release clear timelines, deliverables or even an independent audit mechanism.