President Cyril Ramaphosa has encouraged South Africans to keep engaging in discussions that lay bare their concerns, hopes for the future, and how they envision a better tomorrow for themselves and the country.
“This initiative [the National Convention] is about what all South Africans must do together to make our lives and country better,” President Ramaphosa said on Friday.
Speaking at the first National Convention of the National Dialogue, current underway at the University of South Africa (Unisa) in Pretoria, President Ramaphosa said people must meet in homes and community halls.
“We want them to meet in churches, synagogues, mosques and temples. Our people must meet in schools and lecture halls, in boardrooms and on the shopfloor, on the pathways of our villages and the streets of our townships and our cities,” he said.
President Ramaphosa said the struggle for freedom from apartheid proved that unity in diversity is not an abstract slogan.
“It is a powerful force for transformation,” he said.
The President said no voice is too small and no perspective is too inconvenient to be heard.
“We are gathered here to listen to each other; to understand one another and to chart a common path forward for our country. We meet at a time of profound challenges, economic hardship, unemployment, inequality, growing poverty and a crisis of confidence in our institutions.
“We also meet at a time when the world is rapidly changing and our ability to adapt and renew ourselves will define the next generation,” President Ramaphosa said.
South Africans, the First Citizens said, are sons and daughters of the same soil.
“We share a common past. We share the same inheritance of division, of inequality and of injustice. We share the same pride at ending the crime of apartheid and establishing a constitutional democracy. We also share a common future.
“Because each one of us, regardless of our differences, is committed to work together to build the future of which we all dream. We believe that if we share our concerns and fears, we can conquer them,” the President said.
In her welcoming remarks, Unisa Vice Chancellor, Professor Puleng LenkaBula, said the National Convention marks a turning point in the history of South Africa.
“This is the process that will culminate in the National Dialogue. The process will help to reclaim our peace. As a country, we came from a painful past,” she said.
Chair of the Convention Organising Committee, Boichoko Ditlhake, said the National Convention is a process that allows the country to acknowledge its challenges.
“It is only us as South Africans who are meant to find solutions to our challenges.”
Ditlhake emphasised the importance of communities getting together to discuss their concerns.
“This is the beginning of the many engagements in our communities. We are looking at engagements that will involve more than 10 million South Africans to explore different issues,” he said.
He expressed hope that everlasting solutions will be found for all South Africans.
The two-day National Convention, in which stakeholders and representatives from all quarters of society are participating, aims to outline and agree on key themes for the National Dialogue.
The dialogue has been described by the Presidency as a call to action for citizens to lead an inclusive dialogue on the challenges facing the country. – SAnews.gov.za
