There has long been talk of a National Dialogue to achieve a social compact. In fact, it was one of the things on President’s Ramaphosa’s to-do list for the fist 100 days of his second administration.

It looks like it is going to start in July 2025 with a national convention, coordinated by a collective of national foundations, including the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, and Steve Biko Foundation. News24 reports that this will serve as an agenda setting platform for local dialogues across the country over the following five months. The key question is, what kind of South Africa do people envision?

You can read the article here.

Some might say that this another opportunity to dream, it is procrastination instead of implementation.

That may turn out to be true, but it is also the case that South Africa has not faced up to the trade-offs that we need to make to get to whatever vision of the future. So-called inclusive growth has not happened and we need to talk about whether we want to grow first and hope we can then redistribute, or redress first and hope it leads to growth.