ANC veteran Sexwale cautions against seeing National Dialogue as the silver lining to SA's challenges

JOHANNESBURG - African National Congress (ANC) veteran Tokyo Sexwale has cautioned against labelling the National Dialogue as the silver lining to a range of complex challenges faced by the country.

President Cyril Ramaphosa drew criticism and praise in June when he announced the establishment of the dialogue, which is aimed at strengthening the country's democracy.

The public engagements across the country over a six to nine-month period are expected to rack up a R700 million bill.

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While Sexwale said that a dose of optimism was needed, he said that a bigger dose of caution was also needed to manage expectations.

"We must be very careful that this dialogue is not led by the people who, in the first place, are responsible for the causality of the problems. Otherwise, this thing will fall flat on its face. There’s a good chance the dialogue will produce something and there’s another chance that things will get worse."

Sexwale said that accountability would be key to the dialogue's success.

"Whatever is going to be discussed, there must find a way to be legislated and the government must be held accountable. Of course, a dialogue doesn’t have power to force a government, that’s why it’s important for government to be part of this thing – to give us some assurance because it was established by the president and he can’t run away from this one."