Make the national dialogue a new truth commission

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION

Make the national dialogue a new truth commission

The idea that South Africa should hold a national dialogue, a sort of people's assembly about where we are and where we need to go, is now a year old, and we still don’t know what it will entail, who will participate, and when it will be held. MAX DU PREEZ suggests using the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a model.

Image: CELESTE THERON

THE idea of a national dialogue after the 2024 elections was initially that of former finance minister and now business magnate Mcebisi Jonas, but later former president Thabo Mbeki took up the torch.

The concept is to examine, after 30 years of democracy, what is right and what is wrong in our society; to hear about people’s life experiences, dreams, demands and ideas; to establish a new social compact. As President Cyril Ramaphosa put it: To achieve a “new sociopolitical consensus”.

In other words, to reimagine postapartheid South Africa.

It was supposed to be a Codesa-like experience that would make our democracy and society healthier and reverse the decline of recent decades.

Ramaphosa is now firmly behind the idea and stated in his recent new year’s message: “We will be embarking on a national dialogue, bringing all South Africans together to develop a common vision for the country.”


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But who are his “we”? It surely cannot be a project of the ANC and other political parties, the government or the state? The state could certainly fund it, but by definition, it has to be a project of civil society: Churches, cultural and other pressure groups, nonprofit organisations, academic institutions, the business sector, unions.

Mbeki’s foundation has started mobilising other prominent former leaders’ foundations, such as those of Nelson Mandela, FW de Klerk, Steve Biko, Ahmed Kathrada, Desmond and Leah Tutu, and Andrew Mlangeni. But if I listen to these foundations, they too are still in the dark about what is going to happen.

(It is significant that Mbeki did make the point that the Solidarity Movement, with whom he has a good relationship, should be involved.)

We know what the problems are

I am beginning to doubt whether the dialogue can or will be a meaningful process.

We all more or less know what the problems are: Poverty, hunger, unemployment, homelessness, and rapid urbanisation; rampant crime; the construction and other mafias; corruption; dysfunctional local governments, hospitals, clinics.

And we know the solutions lie in faster economic growth, more effective governance, less bureaucracy and red tape, greater accountability, a more effective criminal justice system, better management of cities and towns.

I have attended some of the government and parliament’s efforts to consult communities. I am sure ordinary people appreciate having a platform to air their grievances and dreams, but I don’t see much more value in it than that.

Mass gatherings as part of the dialogue will not work and will, moreover, be hijacked by political parties and vested interests.

Should it perhaps be a process like the former Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)?

In other words, sessions in most communities where ordinary citizens, local leaders, and pre-approved experts address a panel of trusted individuals, with television cameras rolling and radio microphones recording.

And then, as my team and I did between 1996 and 1999 at the SABC with the highly successful Special Report on the TRC (colleague Anneliese Burgess was part of the team), broadcast a one-hour documentary about it every Sunday evening on the public broadcaster?

Our programme, along with the radio services’ role, was critical in popularising the TRC process and embedding it in the nation’s consciousness. It is just as necessary now to popularise our reflection on 30 years of freedom in this way; otherwise, the process will just be a lot of hot air.

As the TRC did, there could also be more focused sessions on specific topics, such as crime, gangs, the taxi industry, agriculture and land ownership, basic and tertiary education, gender-based violence, the possibility of a wealth tax, the role of traditional leaders, nutrition and school transport, mental health, hospitals and clinics, the role of the dwindling army, the media (social and mainstream), road and rail transport, urban planning, informal settlements, mandatory shares for employees of large companies, stimulating and regulating the informal economy, the role of the Reserve Bank, fiscal and monetary policy, and so on.

But it could take a year or two and cost a lot of money. This is, in any case, my proposal. Do it right, or leave it entirely.

It feels appropriate, because a national dialogue, after 30 years of democracy in which South Africa has stumbled on various levels, is essentially a sort of truth commission.

Only, we must not grant amnesty to politicians who landed us in this mess.

(By the way, if you want to remember what the TRC Special Report did, you can type “TRC hearings South Africa” on YouTube and find all 89 documentaries there. Here’s the link to the very first programme: 

Special Report's inaugural episode covers the very first hearings of the TRC's Human Rights Violation (HRV) Committee, held in East London between April the 15th and 19th.. Segments include testimonies by widows of the Pebco Three and Cradock Four (activists who were abducted and murdered by security forces in the mid 1980s), including an introductory profile of former Vlakplaas askari Joe Mamasela. Former Eastern Cape policeman Gideon Niewoudt's name is linked to the killing of the Pebco Three, Cradock Four and torture of youth activist Siphiwo Mtimkulu. Other segments cover attacks by the PAC's military wing, APLA on the Highgate Hotel and King Williamstown golf club, incidents of torture in the region, and an overview of the structures of the TRC and the role of counselors. The episode also provides some background to one of the most well known cases of torture and killing in the Eastern Cape, that of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko. // Welcome to the first Special Report on the Truth Commission. The Commission's first hearings were held here: in the East London Town Hall and it's been a week of raw emotion.

VWB


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