Lobby groups AfriForum and the Solidarity Movement have announced their withdrawal from the first convention of the national dialogue set to take place at Unisa on Friday
Several legacy foundations, including the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, Steve Biko Foundation, Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation, and FW de Klerk Foundation, pulled out last week, citing concerns that it is state-led rather than citizen-led.
AfriForum and Solidarity raised similar concerns about the direction of the convention.
Solidarity chairperson Flip Buys accused the ANC of “hijacking” the dialogue.
“The reason is that it appears the ANC wants to hijack the intended national dialogue to try to win back lost support rather than find answers to the crises,” Buys said.
“That is why the Solidarity Movement supports the foundations that have decided not to attend the dialogue on Friday. We will also not be there. There is no sense in placing the party responsible for the country’s decline in charge of a national dialogue.”
While acknowledging the importance of engaging in discussions to find solutions for the country's pressing issues, he said the national dialogue would result in more fruitless discussions instead of action.
Buys was sceptical about the ANC involving other stakeholders in the dialogue, saying it previously did not engage in good faith with them.
“The experience is that the ANC would rather conduct an ANC monologue than participate in national dialogues. The ANC has dominated all previous talks, using them merely as forums to try to sell its policies, rather than forums where they could listen to suggestions on how to adapt their unworkable policies.
People talk at workplaces, around the braai, at sporting events and in churches about a yearning for a different dispensation. The state hears this and wants to hijack that spontaneous community dialogue
— Dirk Hermann, Solidarity CEO
“In addition, agreements that were reached have often been broken shortly thereafter by the ANC, only for them to stumble along alone in its socialist dead-end street, dragging the country with it.”
The group said it would adopt a “wait and see” approach to the national dialogue while engaging with cultural communities to address the country's issues.
“We are too busy trying to address the consequences of failed ANC policies, and do not have the time to listen to their outdated blame politics and a repetition of unimaginative ideas for weeks and months on end.
“Our experience is that ‘community dialogues’ can bear more fruit than a state dialogue, and discussions between communities yield more practical results. That is why we plan, in co-operation with other cultural communities, to submit a position on the country’s pressing issues to the national dialogue, but we will not participate on Friday.”
Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann said the ANC wants to pursue its own agendas with the dialogue that has been happening in communities.
“People talk at workplaces, around the braai, at sporting events and in churches about a yearning for a different dispensation. The state hears this and wants to hijack that spontaneous community dialogue.
“It was conceived in the Union Buildings by the president. The moment that happened, the national dialogue was stillborn.”
AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel blamed the ANC for the country's crisis.
“They are the cause of the problems, and therefore they cannot be trusted to lead the process of finding solutions,” he said.
Despite the withdrawal of foundations, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the national dialogue would proceed as planned.
Kriel viewed the Presidency's attitude towards the concerns raised by the foundations that have withdrawn as an indication of a lack of interest in genuine dialogue.
He believes the dialogue should move from being state-driven to a citizen-driven process, highlighting that the organisation has accelerated programmes with cultural communities.
“If the Presidency is not serious about the necessity of genuine dialogue with communities, that does not mean AfriForum and the Solidarity Movement are also not serious about it.”
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