Prominent civil society groups urge SA to embrace a consolidated national dialogue intervention

27 Jun 2024

The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Thabo Mbeki Foundation and Robert Sobukwe Trust have held talks aimed at establishing a national dialogue to discuss the country’s future under the government of national unity.

As South Africa prepares to set up the Government of National Unity (GNU), civil society groups have joined forces to establish a national dialogue aimed at restoring the “legitimacy, credibility and enhancement of a South African democratic project”.

The dialogue will emerge from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s much-awaited Cabinet announcement. It will allow ordinary citizens to collectively play a role in getting the country functioning and the government addressing pressing issues, including unemployment, failing public services and increasing social unrest.

This is according to several organisations, including the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, Robert Sobukwe Trust, Steve Biko Foundation and Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, which gathered at the Mandela Sanctuary in Johannesburg on Thursday, 27 June, to make the announcement.

'Sense of despair'

Reading a joint statement, Nkosinathi Biko, the son of the late Struggle hero Steve Biko, said there had been a palpable sense of despair, hopelessness and despondency that the organisations were concerned about.

“This feeling in society has been on the ascendancy for more than a decade and threatens to reverse the gains of our hard-fought democracy.

“As the foundations formed by or named after eminent South Africans whose values and actions are a guiding light for the building of a non-racial, non-sexist, equal and democratic South Africa, we are concerned about the perilous state that the country finds itself in … despite a proliferation of political parties and independent candidates in the recent 2024 elections, fewer voters participated than ever before.”

In the 29 May election, 16.2 million out of a registered 27.7 million South Africans participated. It was the lowest voter turnout in the country’s democratic history.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Over 11 million registered voters did not cast ballots in SA polls

The poor turnout was despite the introduction of independent candidates for the first time.

Honing in on the low voter turnout, Sobukwe said: “This is an ominous sign that the faith of citizens in electoral democracy has declined since its birth in 1994.

“Of concern, of course, is the prospect that this voting trend may well be a symptom of declining faith in the very idea of democracy and a country united in our diversity.”

To chart the way forward, the foundations maintained that a national dialogue that included a number of stakeholders was the path to take. It would also encourage active citizenry.

“We, the foundations as leading social institutions, believe that an urgent, inclusive, citizen-led, national intervention is required to restore the legitimacy, credibility and enhancement of the South African democratic project.

“It is time for every South African to take part in paving a new way forward. We call on all citizens to engage in defining a clear vision and to establish a unifying programme that inspires new national hope.”

Ramaphosa's call

During last week’s inauguration as head of state for the 7th administration, President Ramaphosa made a call for a national dialogue to consolidate the new GNU. The foundations are instead proposing a separate dialogue unrelated to that suggested by the president.

“We will invite all parties, civil society, labour, business and other formations to a national dialogue on the critical challenges facing the nation. We will seek, as we have done at so many important moments in our history, to forge a social compact to realise the aspirations of our National Development Plan,” said Ramaphosa.

“As individuals, as families, as communities and in our many formations, let us draw on our every strength to turn our dream for a better South Africa into reality.”

The foundations stressed there had been no predetermined outcome for the dialogue.

“Rather, it is our expectation that the collective imagination of citizens will organically produce a national compact that is a collective guide to fulfilling the aspirations of our people.”

The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation’s Neeshan Balton said the structure of the dialogue would be finalised next week and the technical details would be announced in due course.

In 2023, Deputy President Paul Mashatile convened a coalition dialogue in which all political parties were invited. The EFF was the only party in Parliament to stay away. The dialogue yielded no firm consensus on how such arrangements should be managed.

Read more in Daily Maverick: On the threshold of change — coalition dialogues could define the future of SA's democracy

There are already concerns that this dialogue might not yield positive results or simply turn into another talk shop.

Balton said they would endeavour to ensure that solutions and ideas that come out of it are encapsulated into a broad plan that “hopefully would be the kind of plan that the government will buy into”.

Following the announcement, the foundations will approach the Presidency, civil society and the business community – among other stakeholders – to ensure that such a national dialogue is adequately resourced and supported. DM

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South Africa

'Sense of despair'

Ramaphosa's call