Protests pose a first major test for Ramaphosa’s National Dialogue

NEARLY a year after President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled the National Dialogue as South Africa’s blueprint for tackling the country’s deepest social and economic divisions, its role is being questioned after weeks of anti-illegal migrant protests unfolded with little visible intervention from the flagship initiative.

- LILITA GCWABE

Launched in August last year, the National Dialogue was billed as a citizen-led process to help South Africans confront poverty, unemployment, inequality and social divisions.

While critics argue that the recent migration tensions presented exactly the kind of national conversation it was created to facilitate, the government said the initiative was a long-term democratic process rather than a crisis-response mechanism.

As protests targeting undocumented migrants spread across several communities in recent weeks, many expected the Dialogue to provide a platform for national engagement on an issue that has increasingly polarised public opinion.

For the Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA), that opportunity was missed.

Denia Jansen, the organisation's Western Cape representative, said very little had happened on the ground since the Dialogue was launched.

"Nothing much has been done. Things have not yet started concerning the dialogues, and different sectors are trying to reach out to members to pilot the National Dialogue," Jansen said.

"Our sector - land, rural communities, and agriculture - has a draft plan to invite all the stakeholders to identify pilot areas for the National Dialogue, but at the moment nothing has been done."

Jansen said that if the National Dialogue was genuinely intended to be a bottom-up process, it should have played a visible role as anti-illegal migrant tensions escalated.