Dr. Michael Sutcliffe and Ms. Sue Bannister
Former President Thabo Mbeki’s call for national dialogue has a long history of calls from leaders arguing for understanding, discussion and actions that will create not only a nonracial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa but also a united country.
We remember, for example, in the early 1990s when mobilising communities in informal settlements in the south of Durban, Andrew Young, an outstanding leader from the USA, spoke to those impoverished and disenfranchised communities of the need for hope, of the need for continual engagement, but also of the fact that even in the USA, bringing peace, democracy and development remained a long-term battle to defeat poverty, unemployment, hunger and inequality.
Now that President Ramaphosa and other leaders, inside and outside the Government of National Unity have supported that call by President Mbeki for national dialogue, it is incumbent for all of us to ensure these are not talks in fancy places, but action across the length and breadth of our country and across the world.
One immediate outcome of these calls has been to bring together the foundations established in the name of many of our past and present political, religious and academic leaders. These institutions collectively supported the call for a long-lasting national dialogue to inform “our structures of governance, and the texture of our political, economic and social interactions and operations”. They argue, correctly, that this dialogue process should be continuous, aimed at finding solutions and be focussed on the common good of all citizens. It needs also to record conversations across the country, concerning the state of the Nation.
These conversations require two-way honest engagements to both understand each other and find solutions at least to the complex challenges posed by unemployment, poverty and inequality.
We believe that such actions should start by reminding ourselves of the amazing Preamble of our Constitution which binds not only the different elements of that constitution, but which binds us all in our daily struggles to create a better society.
We must:
- Recognise the injustices of our past:
- Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land:
- Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country:
- Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity:
The preamble continues with significant areas for our national dialogue instructing us to:
- Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights:
- Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law:
- Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person:
- Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations:
Most importantly, though, what are the actions each of us can take now to ensure that the future is built on the best foundations? For example, are we ensuring that all, particularly more privileged, schools have the same number of teachers and resources available to teach languages other than only English and Afrikaans? How do we integrate the many people and organizations feeding the hungry across particularly our cities, towns and villages so that no one goes to sleep without food? How do we make our governments responsive to our people, ensuring that non-responsiveness, arrogance and lack of transparency by state officials become crimes against the people?
Our dialogue must be action-oriented, with even the simplest solutions being found so that one day we can say we have finally torn down not only the physical walls that continue to divide us but also the mental walls that remain in our minds and which are far more difficult to erase.
Dr. Michael Sutcliffe and Ms. Sue Bannister are Directors of City Insight (Pty) Ltd.
IOL