Crafting a collective vision for South Africa is one of the things independent national convention chair William Gumede will look out for as he facilitates the two-day discussions.
“It’s extraordinary because normally these sorts of things happen after the elections and not before the elections. That, for me, makes it a very exciting process for South Africa, and in other developing countries people are watching and will learn from what we are doing.“The convention is not against something but to build a coalition, to generate hope for a better South Africa, good governance and capable delivery.”“We will try to agree on a core minimum vision for South Africa.
On the name of the agreement, informally referred to as the moonshot pact, he said: “We are not going to the moon. The group will have to come up with a name which is acceptable to all of the parties. There is going to be a conversation around that.”“If this is the core group, then what about the other opposition parties? Part of my message as the independent chairperson is to engage with some of the opposition parties that are not part of the opposition group.
Gumede said the ideas discussed during these two days may not be realistically possible but the aim of the meeting is to get a joint position in relation to the ongoing national coalition dialogue facilitated by Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s office. “We need to know what the group’s thinking would be, what their ideas are and what would be the governing principles of the coalition. Many coalitions that have failed at a local government level have failed because parties did not have a set of governing principles.
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