Crowds at the Presidential Inauguration at Union Buildings on June 19, 2024 in Pretoria, South Africa. The Presidential Inauguration follows the first sitting of the National Assembly (NA), and also marks the beginning of the seventh administration and the President?s term of office. (Photo by Frennie Shivambu/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
The government of national unity (GNU) is finally assembled. Now it is time for a people of national unity to rise. It is not enough that we wait for the actions of a new government. We, the people, have a broader and more profound political role than simply voting every few years. Together, South Africans must develop the country they want to live in. We must do so in our collective but differentiated ways.
While we often focus on the democratic process, not enough is said or done about South Africa being a republic. In the original Latin, republic means the “public affair”. The South African republic should therefore be constituted by a people who actively pursue their public responsibilities, contributing to the establishment of a society based on democratic values, social justice and human rights.
For the seventh administration to be effective, it does not only require an ethical and capable government. It requires the cooperation of a citizenry that moves to unlock the potential of the republic, an active citizenry that keeps the government to account. But also, one that constructively exploits this pregnant political moment by lending the republic their assorted ideas, talents and capital.
There are many examples of pragmatic, community-led initiatives that have brought significant upliftment across South Africa. By working together, these programmes for betterment have initiated a new can-do attitude that has elevated the collective good, often extending over cultural or other persisting divides. They have instilled pride and have given expression to the republican ethos. It is now imperative, in the way that the GNU is developing paths of cooperation towards the national interest, that we as civil society pragmatically work together to build the future we want.
As active participants in the republic, we should welcome the growing call for a national dialogue. In his inauguration address, which paved the way for the new administration, President Cyril Ramaphosa invited “all parties, civil society, labour, business and other formations to a national dialogue on the critical issues facing the nation”. This he said will be done so to “forge a social compact to realise the aspirations of our National Development Plan”.
Ramaphosa’s pronouncement lends the government’s support to a new national convention. A comprehensive gathering of stakeholders commencing from the recognition that in South Africa there remains a deep and systemic impasse, an unjust and unsustainable situation in which persisting inequities have not found appropriate redress.
The purpose of the national dialogue would, therefore, be to collectively chart a pragmatic, constitutionally transformative path. Or what the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, together with the foundations of several other struggle heroes, has called “a national dialogue to reorient the direction of the nation to develop a common vision, and collectively, intervene to bolster our substantive democracy, to recalibrate our developmental trajectory”.
The proposal for a national dialogue promises to further manifest our culture as a discursive democracy. It recognises the present moment to be equally seminal to those moments that gave birth to the Freedom Charter and the Constitutional Assembly; moments when a diversity of South Africans came together to recognise a political predicament to move the country in a specific direction. It was from its whole-of-society approach and broad participation that the constitutional process and the resultant Constitution gained the irrefutable legitimacy it holds to this day.
For the dialogue to serve the country, it must be broadly inclusive. Its legitimacy depends on all sectors of society lending their recognition and support. South Africans from all corners must articulate their real concerns and must directly participate in its substantiation. The dialogue cannot be captured in any singular event and should possibly run over several years. It is from a sustained dedication to its cause and process that it will ensure the appropriate national reorientation.
Such a sustained programme will require the support and resources of both the government and the private sector. Yet, it should not be controlled by any sector. Nor should we seek to replicate the structures of the past. The dialogue must be decidedly contemporary and forward-looking. Instead of simply being a talk-shop, it requires frameworks and programmes. It is therefore encouraging that the collection of foundations under the guidance of the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, has committed to set up a secretariat to steer the broader programme.
This dialogue can draw inspiration from the GNU’s consequential statement of intent. This foundational document would, according to Ramaphosa, bind the GNU “by certain fundamental principles and would undertake a basic minimum programme of priorities”. As the parties forming government did, so too the various stakeholders of South Africa’s democracy must sign onto a programme of intent.
This programme, while guided by constitutional prescripts, must chart a path for civil society’s rightful participation in national politics. Discursive and participatory democracy functions as a pillar in the pursuit of a just and inclusive society. A reason for the failures of South Africa’s democratic development has been the government’s inadequate facilitation of participatory processes. Section 72 of the Constitution makes it clear that the National Council of Provinces must facilitate proper public involvement in legislative processes. The provincial legislatures are obligated to do the same under section 118. Civil society must in effect be given the space and support to participate fully in the democratic process.
An appropriate outcome of the national dialogue would be, if it were to bring greater participation into our national politics, resulting in an authoritative social compact. In the spirit of the mass movement against apartheid, the dialogue must be people-centred. Everyone must take it into their homes and their communities. The dialogue would thus not serve as an episode, but as an originator of political culture, a hands-on culture through which the South African people claim the republican ethos and give tangible expression to a people of national unity.
Dr Klaus Kotzé is a research associate at the Inclusive Society Institute