Ramaphosa hails August's National Convention as a 'great success'

CAPE TOWN - President Cyril Ramaphosa has hailed August’s National Convention as a "great success" and not a Mickey Mouse event.

Answering questions in the National Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, Ramaphosa would, however, not be drawn into the background politics of last month’s precursor event, which saw several legacy foundations withdraw.

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But he insisted that the initial R740 million price tag was not the key reason for them pulling out.

President Ramaphosa said he personally gave the order to reduce the cost of the National Dialogue, which is expected to last nine months.

But he insisted that the dialogue must be citizen-led, and said he doesn’t plan to get involved in the squabbles of the organisers.

Ramaphosa said he had instructed government to adopt a hands-off approachto the dialogue.

"This is not the president’s dialogue. The people of South Africa called for the dialogue."

Ramaphosa said he did not think it was prudent to stop last month’s convention after concerns from legacy foundations that documents had not been adequately prepared because planning was already too far advanced.

"The decision for me as it was planned to convene it, was a collective decision. It was not one person’s decision."

Ramaphosa said that moving forward, the steering committee would take its lead from civil society and government’s only involvement would be to provide the money.