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IOL News
22-06-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
The National Dialogue must be revolutionary and people-driven
Protesters take part in the defiance campaign, in June 1952, in Johannesburg, by occupying places for white people. The campaign against the apartheid regime's of racial segregation was launched on 26 June 1952 by the ANC and led to the Congress of the People where the Freedom Charter was adopted on 26 June 1955 in Kliptown. Zamikhaya Maseti The much-talked-about National Dialogue is indeed a national conversation we didn't know we needed until former President Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki called for it. President Cyril Ramaphosa must be saluted for heeding that call. This gesture affirms that our leaders still speak and listen to one another. It is a tradition of leadership that the younger generation must urgently emulate: speak truthfully and listen earnestly. Accordingly, President Ramaphosa has announced that the National Dialogue will take place on August 15, 2025, at a venue yet to be disclosed. I will not pretend to be a seasoned logistician, but I would like to propose that Kliptown, Johannesburg, be considered as the location. I make this suggestion because Kliptown was the site where our great-grandparents gathered under difficult, illegal conditions on 25–26 June 1955, to craft a vision for a democratic South Africa. Their gathering produced the Freedom Charter, a document that became a lodestar for the liberation struggle. Today, we face an equally historic task: rebuilding the South Africa that was born of their sacrifices. A nation now fractured and drifting, in desperate need of repair. More significantly, 25–26 June 2025 marks the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter. Holding the Dialogue in Kliptown would root it in the moral soil of people's struggles and remove the sting of elitism that so often surrounds state-led initiatives. It would strip the dialogue of unnecessary extravagance. The original Congress of the People saw delegates arrive by bus, taxi, train some even on horseback. In that spirit, we must question the reportedly proposed R700 million budget for this dialogue. Such an amount is not only absurd; it is morally indefensible. I am relieved that the Presidency has rejected that outrageous and outlandish budget proposal. As South Africans of all colours, classes, and convictions, we must ask the most strategic and politically relevant questions: What should be on the table? That is to say, what must be the agenda, and who defines it? Who should be at the table? Who sits where, and who speaks for whom? Are the working class, the agrarian working class, the landless masses of the people, and the unemployed adequately represented? These are not rhetorical questions. They go to the very heart of the dialogue's legitimacy. We cannot assume that 'broad representation' will occur naturally or that it should be left solely to the Preparatory Committee. I do not claim to have all the answers, but I do insist that all South Africans must grapple with these questions. A particularly troubling issue is the class composition of the Eminent Persons appointed to guide the process. By and large, they are drawn from the polished ranks of South Africa's middle class if not the elite. The rural poor and the agrarian working class are conspicuously absent. The assumption that the inclusion of traditional leaders covers their interests is false. Many of these institutions remain untransformed, misogynistic, patriarchal, and disconnected from the democratic impulses of the poor. In short, the selection of Eminent Persons leaves much to be desired. Perhaps their exclusion reflects the disorganisation of rural voices, but that is no excuse. The National Dialogue must reflect the totality of South African life. It is ostensibly aimed at navigating South Africa through deep and interconnected crises: a crisis of governance, a crisis of political legitimacy, social fragmentation, and economic despair. The critical question is whether this initiative is a bold act of national renewal or just another elite performance, obsessed with appearances while the nation quietly disintegrates. For the dialogue to have any integrity, it must begin with representative legitimacy. The poor, the unemployed, farmworkers, shack dwellers, and students still fighting financial exclusion cannot be passive spectators. The tragedy of South African democracy is that the people are so often spoken about, rarely spoken to, and rarely allowed to speak for themselves. Will this Dialogue include the real South Africa, or will it be another exercise in managerialism, dominated by technocrats and polite middle-class professionals? The timing of this dialogue is not neutral. It must be seen in light of the failure of the political class to resolve the legitimacy crisis that followed the 2024 general elections. The resulting Government of National Unity (GNU), a patchwork of ideological contradictions, has failed to inspire public trust. This dialogue, then, risks becoming a substitute theatre, a democratic therapy session designed to manage anxiety rather than resolve it. If so, this is not dialogue it is deflection. We must insist that the dialogue confronts structural questions: economic power, historical redress, and the unresolved land question. These matters cannot be handled delicately or deferred indefinitely. We must also address the scourge of bureaucratic unaccountability. Any serious conversation about building a capable and ethical State must begin with real consequence management for public servants who loot, obstruct, or undermine public trust. This national dialogue must not be pacifying; it must be revolutionary. It must be uncomfortable, radical, and people-driven. It must speak to power, not for it. It must demand a reckoning with the nation's unfinished business. We cannot afford a dialogue that dances around the contradictions of our society. We cannot whisper reform in a house already burning. The President may have opened the floor, but it is up to the people to seize the space not as polite guests but as the rightful architects of South Africa's democratic future. If this Dialogue becomes another elite jamboree, it will bury us deeper in disillusionment. But if it becomes a genuine space for democratic reimagination, a re-founding moment, then perhaps, just perhaps, the Republic may begin to heal. * Zamikhaya Maseti is a Political Economy Analyst with a Magister Philosophiae (M. PHIL) in South African Politics and Political Economy from the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE), now known as the Nelson Mandela University (NMU). ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.
IOL News
02-06-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Cosatu: assessing the SANDF's capacity to fulfil its constitutional mandate
In a few weeks, Cosatu along with many other South Africans celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter drafted at the historic Congress of the People in Kliptown by the African National Congress led Alliance. This visionary document, that declared boldly, that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, provided the foundation for our internationally respected Constitution and much of what government seeks to achieve. A discussion needs to be held on whether the South African National Defence Force is able to fulfill its constitutionally mandated role today of defending the Constitution? The worrying answer that has been appearing over many years is that it may struggle. All nations require the capacity to defend themselves not only from other nations' governments' adventurism but increasingly from non-state threats. These may come in the form of foreign terrorists using South Africa as a training base as was seen with some Libyans in Mpumalanga or Isis or Al-Shabab elements utilising South Africa for money laundering, to foreign vessels looting fishing stock from South African waters. It takes years to build a coherent defence capacity. Having an internationally respected defence capability is equally key to deterring such threats to our sovereignty. South Africa has a long history of being one of the most formidable military powers in the continent, including playing its role in defeating Nazi Germany in North Africa and Italy in World War Two to since the democratic breakthrough playing a leading role in peace keeping missions in Africa. It was natural for government since 1994 to drastically reduce funding spent on defence. Military conscription ended for white men and there was a new democratic state committed to peace with the region and the brutal apartheid regime was over. Equally there were pressing socioeconomic challenges inherited from three and a half centuries of systemic neglect of 90% of the population that needed to be prioritised. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading Mistakes were made when the arms deal package were the focus was on arming the SANDF for conventional war and less for peacekeeping missions. As is well ventilated, corruption seeped in. Today the price of those mistakes has become painfully clear, and they pose a real threat to workers, not only those employed in the SANDF but across the economy. The conditions of the SANDF's bases, both at home and abroad, leave much to be desired with buildings falling apart, soldiers living in over cramped and unhygienic conditions, security lax at best and enabling criminals to enter secure premises. Training is often inadequate and more critically, too little is provided. Machinery and vehicles are deteriorating with no funds to maintain or repair them. Air Force pilots are not being provided with the number of flying hours required to remain top of their game, and even placing their flying certification at risk. The air fleet, in particular the Gripens, suited for conventional warfare is barely functioning. the SANDF lacks the airlift capacity to deploy and collect peacekeeping forces in remote locations. Army personnel in these remote areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and elsewhere are unprotected with little if any, helicopter assault or deployment capacity. A similar depressing picture exists with the SA Navy where mistakes were made to purchase a fleet better suited for conventional warfare but with little capacity to protect our waters from the mass pilfering of fishing stock by foreign trawlers, and also by local criminal syndicates for endangered species. The spread of Somali pirates to the Mozambique Channel in the past decade, highlighted the need for a navy with rapid deployment capacity. The tragic loss of three sailors in a training exercise off Simonstown in 2024, was a painful reminder of the real cost in life to SANDF personnel and their families for the neglect of the SANDF. A discussion needs to be held about the age profile of the SANDF. SANDF personnel need to be young and fit to state the obvious. It is not an institution where one goes to retire. Yet over the years, its age profile has risen well past 35 years and has become increasingly top heavy. During the Mandela Administration dedicated programmes were put in place to equip SANDF personnel with the training and skills they would need to find decent jobs in the economy upon exiting, e.g. as mechanics, finance managers, law enforcement etc. The SANDF has begun to revive this programme and also announced its intention to help train unemployed youth as part of its contribution to the economy. The situation is salvageable. The members of the SANDF are patriots and committed to serving the nation. But we need to give them the tools needed to fulfill their mandate. Equally we need to agree on what is that mandate. The SANDF has several fundamental tasks. The first is ensure the security of the state against foreign and domestic enemies. Then we need to give it the funds necessary to train our pilots, to have working planes, radars etc. Second is to support the police as needed. This requires fit and well trained army personnel with working and secure transport. They need to be trained specifically in law enforcement as maintaining peace during riots at home is different from dealing with enemy combatants overseas. This support includes its role in assisting in domestic disaster management, e.g. floods, fires. Third is to secure our borders in collaboration with the Border Management Authority and the SAPS. We have over 4400 kilometres of land borders and even larger territorial waters. They need working vehicles, drones and field bases as well as a coast guard fleet and radar capacity. Fourth is to support peacekeeping across the continent. This requires extensive training, fit personnel, airlift and defence capabilities, armoured and mobile land transport amongst others. The SANDF has a critical role to play. Its personnel represent the best of us. It is time that we give them our support and the resources they need to fulfill their constitutional mandates. Solly Phetoe is the general secretary of Cosatu. Solly Phetoe is the general secretary of Cosatu. Image: File BUSINESS REPORT Visit:
