A journey of a thousand miles, goes the Chinese saying, begins with the first step.
One cannot fault many of those who came out at the conclusion of this past weekend’s national convention, believing that SA has indeed taken that first decisive step towards a much-needed national dialogue.
More than a thousand delegates, coming from such diverse organisations as a taxi drivers’ association, military veterans, religious groups, youth formations and many others, gathered at Unisa for two days in preparation for what is planned to be a year-long process of consultation with citizens about the country’s future.
There was nothing stage-managed about the weekend’s engagement, hence the robust debates, some of which played themselves out on stage with millions watching throughout the country.
If anyone in politics or any form of authority believes that they will control the national dialogue process and, therefore, predetermine its outcomes, they would have had a rude awakening at the weekend.
In plenary as well as in “the labs” – the smaller groupings in which key themes were discussed – participants were brutally frank, even argumentative. They had no time for sugarcoating the issues or coddling the country’s political and business leadership.
And this is how it should be if the national dialogue process is going to have any effect and help SA emerge from the general state of decline she finds herself in.
As Lindiwe Mazibuko, deputy chair of the eminent persons group that is helping to facilitate the process, said at the close of the two-day event: “We are here because South Africans want real action: jobs and livelihoods, safety from crime and corruption, a functioning education system, a state that embodies integrity, a culture of values and social cohesion, tangible progress in addressing violence against women and girls, and healing within communities grappling with intergenerational trauma. These are not abstract concepts; they reflect the daily lives of South Africans.”
They are also issues that can’t be discussed frankly without fingers being pointed, in many cases at those who have run the country for the past three decades. Hence, when the process eventually gets to ward levels – the organisers say each municipal ward in the country should have at least three such community engagements over the next year – no one should be trying to manipulate processes for outcomes that are aimed at shielding any political party and its deployees from sharp criticism.
One was encouraged to learn that the process of establishing a steering committee to direct and co-ordinate the process has been extended by two weeks to allow for sectors to identify those who will be representing them in the committee. Hopefully, this results in a truly diversified team that is able to accommodate the experiences and aspirations of South Africans from all walks of life.
However, true inclusivity will not be achieved if scores of other groups, representing various constituencies in our society, are left behind. It is therefore crucial that the eminent persons group, working with the steering committee, do all in their power to get the Thabo Mbeki Foundation and many others who have followed it to distance themselves from the weekend’s meeting, back on board.
Surely one cannot argue that we have a truly inclusive dialogue when the country’s second largest political party and several others – together voted into parliaments by millions of citizens – are not participating in the process.
Though the process is supposed to be citizen-driven, it is still important to have the buy-in of formations from across the board and the political spectrum. Otherwise, the whole exercise may end up looking like a series of meetings by the like-minded. And where would that take us?
For others to join the process, however, President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC should resist the temptation to turn the national dialogue into the president’s legacy project.
Instead of mocking those who have stayed away, they should be finding ways of drawing them back in by addressing their misgivings and ensuring that by “citizen-driven”, they mean exactly that. Perhaps the president should spend the next few weeks meeting individually with the foundations, trade unions and other formations that boycotted this past weekend’s convention with the aim of resolving the differences.
Failure to do that would probably result in a parallel process whereby the foundations would convene their own national dialogue. That would cause public confusion and further erode the trust of the population that is already highly sceptical of anything involving dialogues, conventions and commissions.
While taking the first step was important, the journey would be derailed and eventually aborted if the government and the organisers of the national dialogue do not see the absolute necessity of not walking it only with those who agree with them.
SowetanLIVE
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