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PATH TO THE DIALOGUE

27/10/2021 08:21:00 BY SANELE JELE

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The country waits with baited breath to see if the proposed dialogue will usher in some form of calm.

One has been pondering on what it really means and if it will indeed be sufficient to bring the calm that we need; a calm sufficient enough to allow for commerce to resume unhinged, societal functioning to return to some semblance of normalcy. One thing that cannot be overemphasised is that the country needs calm and we need to move forward as a country.

Sufficiency of the proposal

Supply chains rely heavily on the socio-economic and political landscape of the country. We cannot divorce commerce from society as businesses extract their revenues from society. Hence when societies are in turmoil, commerce is also in turmoil. One, therefore, wonders if the current dialogue proposal, to happen early next, will be enough to buy us the calm that we need, or more needs to be done? Will it be enough to hold the bottom until we get to the dialogue? We are threading on very thin ice and our societal fabric and social capital depends on the proposal being effective. I worry that the proposal itself needs to be qualified and scope for preparations for a meaningful dialogue that will help move the country to a new equilibrium so that we can get the economy back on its growth trajectory.

Devil is in details

Transparency and accountability are critical moving forward. If the proposal is to hold that the dialogue is to be held next year, can we propose that in the pro-term the stakeholders use the time to hash out the details on what will constitute an effective dialogue? This time should be used by the different stakeholders to craft a way forward and craft a path to the dialogue. There should be effective engagement of stakeholders with one another, the dialogue needs to be planned by all, it cannot be a process led by one side. It should be treated as the extraordinary dialogue that it is; we need to be cognisant of the fact that this cannot be an ordinary Sibaya.

We are going into these discussions with as a bleeding nation and we need to craft an approach that will be sufficient to stop these bleeds. We need to be amenable to amending a forum to suit the needs that we have as a country right now. Furthermore, this platform has been used before, and none of its recommendations were ever enforced because as a senior prince once said, besitihhamula.

Strengthening the proposal

The proposal needs to be strengthened to ensure that it is able to carry through the mandate of nation building and weaving the torn societal fabric. I do believe that the proposal for a dialogue can be strengthened so that the nation moves towards a new path of prosperity. There is need for effective stakeholder engagement as we move forward. The logistics need to be planned in collaboration with all stakeholders, and there is need to ensure that international observer missions are allowed into the meeting as this is an extraordinary dialogue. There is need for a confirmation apriori on the enforcement of the resolutions of the dialogue.

The nation needs assurances from all stakeholders that the resolutions will be actioned accordingly and all the parties need to commit to the outcomes of the dialogue. One can even go better and move to ensure that the issue of the arrested Members of Parliament and the exiled Member of Parliament needs to be expediently dealt with; it is my belief that this would go a long way in ushering some calm in the country.

Benefits of strengthened proposal

A strengthened proposal will give space for social healing as we move forward towards the dialogue and diffuse tensions before we get to the actual proposal. Furthermore, a strengthened proposal will give space for commerce to operate with some certainty which is something that we are all yearning for; just give us some certainty so that we go out and make money by the day. A well-crafted path to the dialogue will help give space for social provisioning of services.

We need a space that will reduce the need for protest actions. We need as a country to engender a society that will allow our children to return to school, we need tertiary institutions to be open. We all have a responsibility as a community to thrive towards building a socially cohesive nation so that we can get towards some sort of normalcy. Businesses need the calm and some sort of certainty to thrive and get the economy growing and to produce growth in the country.

Conclusion

The proposal is a good first start, however, there is need to do more so that we get to reap the benefits of the dialogue, otherwise it will be a futile exercise. If it goes wrong, it might push us deeper into an abyss and not Uhuru.