Civil society organisations that boycotted the first national convention, which was meant to lay the foundation for the national dialogue, are planning to meet this week to chart the way forward.
The August 20 meeting planned by a group of more than 50 organisations that convened in 2024 is expected to reflect on the past weekend’s national convention at Unisa.
The national convention, which was attended by more that 1,000 delegates, was dismissed by legacy foundations and political parties including the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, the Steve Biko Foundation and the Desmond & Leah Tutu Foundation, which claim the event was misleading and unrepresentative of South Africa.
“We request that there be a meeting of the organisations that met in September 2024 to debrief and reflect on the process. This meeting will also discuss a mechanism to recalibrate the national dialogue process,” the notice dated August 14 sent to the civil society organisations said.
“The national dialogue is meant to be a people’s process, not another government talk shop,” the foundations said in a joint statement. “Citizens must set the agenda while government plays a supportive role. The August 20 meeting will ensure the dialogue is steered back on track.
“The national convention was designed to be content-driven and the preparatory task team commissioned discussion documents that would serve as a conversation starter, which would be distributed to all sectors, with fact sheets, summaries and translations in all the official languages, enabling participants in the first national convention to make informed inputs.
“When these were not distributed, it was clear to the legacy foundations that the first national convention was destined to be nothing more than just a talk shop.”
Cabinet has agreed the budget of the national dialogue should be determined through the established processes and take proper account of the fiscal constraints.
— President Cyril Ramaphosa
Despite the widespread and public disapproval of the convention at the weekend, the organisers have sought to cast it as a citizen-led process aimed at resetting the country’s course.
The process to establish a steering committee for the national dialogue has been extended by two weeks. The committee will be responsible for directing and co-ordinating the work of the dialogue.
“Each of the sectors held discussions on how they would select their nominee for the steering committee and agreed they would provide the names of their nominees by the end of August 2025,” the organisers said.
“To ensure nobody is left behind, this period will provide space to include organisations in sectors that did not attend the national convention.”
In a parliamentary response to ActionSA’s Athol Trollip two weeks ago, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the budget for the national dialogue had not yet been finalised and had not yet been taken through the established government budgeting processes. He said it had not yet been considered by the interministerial committee chaired by Deputy President Paul Mashatile.
“Cabinet has agreed the budget of the national dialogue should be determined through the established processes and take proper account of the fiscal constraints.”
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