Ramaphosa urges dialogue, unity to fix ‘broken’ South Africa

President Cyril Ramaphosa urged South Africans to come together to find solutions to the country’s many problems, launching on Friday a months-long “national dialogue” dismissed by critics as a costly talk shop.

The nationwide public consultation comes with Africa’s most industrialised nation still grappling with massive poverty and inequality 30 years after the end of apartheid.

“We all agree that there are many things that are broken in our country,” Mr. Ramaphosa told a convention of more than 1,000 people that will draw up a roadmap for local-level meetings across the country over six to nine months.

“By getting together, talking to each other, we should be able to find solutions on how we can put many of the things that are broken in our country together,” he said.

Among the problems Mr. Ramaphosa cited were unemployment that has passed 33 percent and inequality, among the starkest in the world.

Priorities listed by organisers included high crime and land reform, with most farmland still in the hands of the white minority.

Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) is touting the dialogue as a “conversation among South Africans” to chart a brighter future, but it has been met with scepticism by critics.

The Democratic Alliance, the second-largest party in the rocky year-old government of national unity, labelled the process as “meaningless” and an “obscene waste” of money and said it would not take part.

The two-day convention was snubbed by key backers of the dialogue, including former president Thabo Mbeki, after complaints that it had been rushed and concerns about the budget.

Amid reports that it will cost taxpayers several hundred million rand, the presidency has said everything would be done to reduce costs, with some venues and transport to be provided for free.

Mr. Ramaphosa called on people from across the diverse nation of 63 million to take part.

“We also need to ask ourselves, why do so many people live in abject poverty, and so few live lives of opulence?” he said. “Why, after decades of democracy, are the prospects of the white child so much better than those of a black child?” he said.

“We must aim to emerge from this process with a shared national vision: one that is bold enough to inspire, yet practical enough to implement,” Mr. Ramaphosa said.

Around 30 eminent South Africans have been named as ambassadors of the process, including award-winning actor John Kani and Miss South Africa 2024, Mia le Roux, who were both at the launch.

“We are a group of people who are very keen, have interest and experience,” said Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of the Gift of the Givers humanitarian group and another ambassador.

“If you listen to the dialogue within ourselves, it is not a rubber-stamp organisation — everyone challenges each other,” he told AFP.