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South Africa

The ANC’s 750 million rand gamble: will new dialogue restore trust or fuel opposition?

Ramaphosa says the forum will produce a social compact for jobs, power and security – critics dismiss it as political theatre

As accusations about top politicians’ colluding with people traffickers and drug dealers dominate public debate in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa has been trying to refocus attention on his legacy project – a National Dialogue to win broad agreement on a 30-year policy framework. Initially, civic activists had called for a national conversation to address South Africa’s shortcomings on governance and economy – but they wanted it to be independent of government management. ANC leaders saw that as a threat and quickly took over the project which has been lambasted for its design and cost, an initial budget of 750 million rand (US$42.4m).

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