A dynamic digital digest and blog that seek to localise the National Dialogue

Introducing Mzanzi Dialoguing and Social Transformation Digital Digest ( working title )

Our hyper-connected and multipolar world speaks to a new model for development: a universal framing that includes high, middle and low-income countries alike. This new model is needed to address challenges that are both global and local. The impact of automation and technology on the world of work is a critical example of these challenges. Advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence are enabling headline-grabbing technology such as self-driving trucks, but work is also being transformed in a multiplicity of ways.  SDG 8 calls for “the promotion of sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”.

Social Compacting & Social Cohesion and National Dialogue   2025-26

Key Themes and Modalities of content management:

The following key themes will be discussed on a regularly  The content themes shall be written by experts and practioners in the field. In terms of People centred democracy approach we shall also include beneficiary communities in the debates

 

  1. Inequality
  2. Environmental and Climate change and community impacts
  3. Biodiversity and sustainability
  4. Youth and Gender mainstreaming in development and governance
  5. Skills Revolution and AI and Jobs of the Future
  6. G20 themes C20 community and Social 20
  7. Youth for transformation
  8. People Living with Disabilities PLWDAs
    1. Physical
    2. Mental Health
  • An Anxiety in Society series
  1. Accessibility in Education and sports and livelihoods sub themes

i Climate change at Local level

j Depression and Anxiety and AI

k Skills for new economy

l Women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship

Localising   South Africa Mzanzi’s National Dialogue  2025- 26 and beyond

Inequality, poverty, unemployment, violence and social discord affect the lives of millions of South Africans and hold back our country’s progress. Our economy has not been growing and the number of unemployed people has been rising. In many areas, we have seen a deterioration in governance, a decline in the delivery of services and widespread corruption and wastage of public resources. At the same time, we have seen an increasing disengagement by many people from the democratic process, as witnessed by the turnout in the May 2024 elections.

The National Dialogue is an opportunity to mobilise South Africans to address these challenges and restore our country to the path of transformation, development and progress.It is an opportunity to build on the achievements of the last three decades by defining a shared vision and a common programme to take the country forward. The National Dialogue draws on a rich tradition of discussion, debate and united action.At critical moments in our history, we have come together as a people to confront our difficulties and find solutions to our problems.

But systemic repair is not merely the work of the elite. A return to grassroots democracy is indispensable. The people, the ones who queued in ’94 with trembling hope, must be brought back to the centre of governance, not as passive spectators but as active architects. Civil society, social movements, religious bodies, worker organisations, youth formations, these are not side actors; they are the real Parliament of the People.

We must then reimagine citizenship, not as periodic voting, but as perpetual participation. The strengthening of civic institutions and the rebirth of an active citizenry is the only credible antidote to elite capture and democratic decay.

Ultimately, the National Dialogue must restore the central promise uttered boldly 70 years ago in Kliptown: “The People Shall Govern.” That is not a slogan. It is a covenant. And covenants, once broken, demand not just apologies but repair, repentance, and recommitment.  Let us, therefore, put back the wheels that fell off the democratic vehicle. Let us take the Dialogue back from political actors playing hide-and-seek with our future. Let us, the people, write the next chapter of our nation, not with ink, but with intention. (President Cyril Ramaphosa, June 2025  )

We seek to ‘give voice’ to movements and individuals most marginalized within society is a critical intervention in furthering their work towards social justice. This belief is underpinned by three facts regularly conveyed by our activist partners: Activists and marginalized groups desperately need space but often find themselves excluded (by design). This exclusion – which largely plays out in intersectional, class and racialised terms – keeps working class and poor people from gathering together, growing together and organizing together.

Strategic impact is greatest when action is collective. Opportunities for collaboration, creativity and solidarity are maximized when people come together in spaces from varied backgrounds, disciplines, fields, issues and geographies.

There is a magic and beauty  that happens when people come together in spaces that is impossible to replicate. The COVID lockdowns and travel restrictions have affirmed how important working and interacting with people in physical spaces can be. Remote communication will remain an important tool, but it will always have its limits. We fundamentally believe in the combined power of time and space to forge meaningful and lasting bonds between people, projects and places.

  1. Our media project is both a online digital web presence
  2. Our media project is also a book café cum mini publishing that provides space for discussion, networking and offer media and tech services

This hybrid model is recognised as a model for sustainauublily as well and can be hub for sustainable media in SA and region.

 

Theme  –   Discussing Inequality

South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world. Our painful past of racial exclusion trapped most black people in poverty. At the end of apartheid, there was progress, hope and renewal, but the gap between rich and poor remains far too wide.  Today, wealth is still concentrated in the hands of about one fifth of the population. Poorer people have worse nutrition, health and education, choking their potential to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to get a job, to earn and participate fully in society. When their children grow up, this cycle of exclusion is repeated, generation after generation. They are stuck in an inequality trap with few chances to break free.

Escaping the inequality trap requires a fundamental change in a child’s life trajectory. Changing trajectories begins with a healthy pregnancy. A child that is nurtured, eats nutritious food and is ready to read and do maths by the time they go to school is on a different path compared to a child that is stunted, has poor early language development and no caring adult at home. Skills beget skills so a child with a strong start and quality schooling will have more chances to fulfil their potential. And when more people build the knowledge and skills needed to fully participate in the economy, we have the makings of a thriving society, and a way out of the inequality trap.

Theme 3:  AI and  new Future of Work and new Skills

The convergence of green industrialisation, digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform economies globally, presenting both opportunities and challenges for SA. This policy briefing is based on participatory futures research, integrating strategic foresight, anticipatory governance and sustainable development perspectives to examine implications of green, digital and AI transitions for skills development in the region. Key challenges are identified within the SA’s skills ecosystem, including issues of access, relevance and applicability. Critical imperatives for advancing green, digital and AI skills are outlined. The briefing explores factors shaping industrialisation, futures of education and learning and the rapidly evolving landscape of digital and AI technologies. It also highlights critical uncertainties that may impact skills development pathways in SA. Actionable recommendations are provided to enhance the region’s skills development strategies to ensure these are anticipatory, future-ready, adaptive and resilient in response to ongoing global transitions.

AI and Future of Work and new digital skills dialogues

As AI adoption continues to rise, education systems, governments and businesses must invest in skilling, AI and technological literacy, and talent development to remain competitive in an increasingly digital world. Success depends on a mindset of continuous learning, curiosity and adaptability.

 

Theme – G20 in 2025- Africa’s ‘Big Chance’ at shaping the Global Economic agenda

South Africa hosts the G20 in 2025 with great African expectations for a better Development deal. The role of the G20 in creating the foundation for global economic stability, a vital catalyst for economic development and implementing consequential global commitments such as the Pact for the Future and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Agenda 2030) cannot be overstated.

There are several vibrant engagement groups with good discussions

  • Government 20
  • Business 20
  • Women 20
  • Labour 20
  • Civil 20
  • Youth 20
  • Culture 20

 

  • Urban 20
  • Start Up 20
  • Social 20

 

South Africa’s hosting of G20 in 2025 has been wide-ranging. However more relevant debates are needed These are domains of robust and important dialogues taking place

The forum initially focused largely on broad macroeconomic issues, but it has since expanded its agenda to inter-alia include trade, climate change, sustainable development, health, agriculture, energy, environment, AI, climate change, and anti-corruption. It comprises 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, United Kingdom, and United States) and two regional bodies, namely the European Union (EU) and African Union (AU). The G20 members represent around 85% of the global Gross Domestic Product, over 75% of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.

The G20 was upgraded to the level of Heads of State/Government in the wake of the global economic and financial crisis of 2007, and in 2009, when it became apparent that the necessary crisis coordination would only be possible at the highest political level. Since then, the G20 Leaders have met regularly, and the G20 has become the premier forum for international economic cooperation.

 

Theme   Local Governance matters:

Local Government is ‘where services happen’ yet it is weakes level of governance and service delivery. Or local governance series is  designed to achieve a more responsive and accountable local government in South Africa by deepening democracy, enhancing the participation of local communities in the integrated development planning (IDP) processes (with particular emphasis on water and sanitation) and improving planning and oversight of service delivery in municipalities through enhanced community participation.

 

 

A Public Participatory approach in  Digital Public sphere

Community of Practice (CoP) approach:  a community of practice can also be just an “activity system” where participants are in common agreement about what they do and the meaning it has in both their lives and that of the communities.  This is especially important in arts and culture projects. The following themes emerged from this theory namely, individuals learn as they participate by interacting with the community, the tools at hand and the moment’s activity; knowledge emerges from these elements interacting; knowing and doing is closely linked; individuals aim to become a full participant in the community of practice, not to learn about the practice.

A community of practice has three dimensions namely, mutual engagement, a joint enterprise and a shared repertoire. Mutual engagement refers to the actions of people “whose meaning they negotiate with one another.” I would like to expand on this concept of the three dimensions referred to above, since my view is that the crisis within the sector can be linked to a breakdown of these three dimensions which I address in my analysis and findings.

Mutual engagement is the mutual relationships amongst participants and discovering what works and what does not work; finding out who is who and who knows what in the community. It is also about finding out what facilitates and what are constraints in the community and who you can get along with and who not. Mutual relationships can be harmonious or marked by conflict and tension.

Critical cultural perspective (CCP) is a form of experiential learning where power relations assume a central position in the knowledge production process. A branch of the CCP theory is the popular education model espoused by Paulo Freire. His educational approach sees man as an active enquirer instead of a passive recipient of the ideas of others. Key to his view of knowledge production is what he termed “praxis” or conscious action. According to him people are constantly in a process of action and reflection. Human beings are able to detach themselves from their natural and social environment and can act to change it. We propose that in terms of local governance, development  and state-citizen relations, we can apply Friers theory and approach as relevant in a rapidly transitioning society such as South Africa. Moreover the Living Labs are a good research setting to apply this approach.

For Freire “Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction by reconciling the poles of contradiction, so that both are simultaneously teachers and students”

When this solution of roles take place then the teacher is no longer the one who teaches but can also be taught, i.e. the teacher can become the student and vice versa. They now enter into dialogue with each other and become collectively responsible for each others’ growth (Freire, 1972: 53). Freire insisted on “situating educational activity in the lived experience of participants…” An example of this is his work with people around literacies “that have the possibility of generating new ways of naming and acting in the world.” In a society that is in transition and transformative phase with multiple level of social, economic and governance, South Africa is ideally to apply the principles and community education models for governance and service delivery. Friere’s model is on of empowerment, modes of self reliance as well as integrating real and relevant learning for all participants in these programmatic interventions.

The Organizational  Learning approach to evaluation not only fundamentally changes the way social actors relate to each other, it also requires a radical shift in the role of the evaluator. All actors, including the evaluator, have to recognise they are part of a joint learning effort. In such an ‘epistemic community’, the evaluator becomes a facilitator in a joint inquiry rather than an expert wielding an ‘objective’ measuring stick. Yet such communities run the risk of ‘clique-building’, reducing the diversity of opinion if the discourse is captured by the most vocal actors in the group.  Critical self-reflection must be maintained in order to build in ‘reality checks’ and thus avoid too narrow a discourse among closed circles.

Hodges (1998) highlighted the importance of “dis-identification” where the values of workers or beneficiaries can come into conflict with that of the community of practice. The perspective of Darrah (1995)  raises the issue of who holds power within a community of practice and how that determines the level of participation. This is vital for interventions  that relies on dynamic engagement and participation of beneficiary communities.

A third perspective focuses on a type of learning that leads to change in society at large. When the sharing and interpretation of evidence extend beyond those directly involved in the evaluation process, conflicts of interest are common and consensus becomes the exception rather than the rule. The question then is whether and how interested parties can exert pressure for change and whose interpretation of the findings is the dominant one. The co-existence of multiple truths requires a more transparent analysis of findings and the creation of ‘sense-making fora’ for stakeholders to interpret and validate the evidence. Some commentators stress that such broadening of the interpretation of evidence to a wider audience and different interest groups can help to avoid ‘paradigm traps’ among scientists and policy-makers that limit their views on development options (Combs,2001).

Linked to the societal uptake of evidence is what  sociologist Weiss described as ‘knowledge creep’, i.e. the way in which the conceptual use of evidence can ‘gradually bring about major shifts in awareness and reorientation of basic perspectives’ among a broader audience. These ideas have recently reemerged in concepts such as knowledge management and knowledge as a global public good, pioneered by the World Bank and others.

 

Communication as a Process.  The C4D model focuses on community development, social entrepreneurship, and arts and culture  project actors as recipients of communicated data.  However, ICT4D projects can also be assessed by seeing actors as communicators who are themselves transmitting data.  There are two main ways this can be done:

  • Functionalist: looking particularly at the way in which arts and culture changes the quantitative and qualitative nature of the communication process.
  • Sociological: seeing communication as a performed practice within a social context. For example, Mosse & Nielsen’s (2004) study which sees arts and culture communication as functional but also as symbolic (performed “to present and legitimize a rational organization to external constituencies”) and ritualistic (performed as a means to reinforce membership of a particular community).

 

 Participatory and Social Change Approach.  The C4D model outlined above comes from the “behavioural change” tradition of communications-for-development.  However, there are many other strands to C4D (In particular, there is a participatory, social change strand that sees the behavioural change approach as narrow, top-down, paternalistic and individualistic.  We propose the strand instead seeks empowerment for communities as collectives to define what information they require, to seek out appropriate communications channels, and ultimately to control, own and manage their communication and arts and culture processes (Figueroa)   Being a much more bottom-up, participatory approach, its approach to impact assessment is in a similar vein