Calling on South Africans to Shape the Plans to Fix South Africa

28 May 2020

In August this year, we will launch a new political party arising from The People’s Dialogue which saw millions of South Africans participating in discussions aimed at shaping a shared future for our country.

Through their submissions, participants put forward innovative and workable solutions to some of the country’s greatest challenges and expressed their commitment to the project of fixing South Africa.

Today, I am calling on South Africans for a second time, asking them to volunteer their services to participate in a series of weekly discussions that will help us refine the values of our new political party – non-racialism, a free-market economy, social justice, the rule of law, and electoral reform – and translate these into workable policy solutions.

The truth is that South Africa is a country beset by social injustice and faced with serious challenges in our economy, education, criminal justice system and healthcare, amongst others. Yet, 18.6 million South Africans of voting-age, who did not vote in 2019, have no faith in the solutions put forward by these parties.

This is made worse by opposition parties that have no ambition beyond that status and can remain without workable alternative solutions in their constant criticism.

Our new party will be different. Our policy approach will not be determined by career politicians who have never succeeded in anything that has generated value for South Africa. Instead it will be guided the voices of ordinary South Africans and honed by solutions-focused experts with real-world experience.

I am calling on doctors, nurses and hospital administrators to come forward and volunteer their time to craft the solutions needed for our healthcare system.

I am calling on law enforcement officers, retired judges, prosecutors and security experts to come forward and work with us on the plan to keep South Africans safe and rebuild our criminal justice system.

I am calling on business owners, big and small, from those listed on the JSE to the small construction company, to lend their expertise in crafting a plan to turn our economy around and create jobs.

I am calling on small business owners, who have struggled for decades, to come forward and tell us what solutions are needed to unlock their potential and make small business the backbone of our economy.

South Africans who would like to offer their knowledge and expertise towards finding solutions to our greatest challenges, can register their interest in shaping the future of our country on our website starting tomorrow, indicating their area of expertise. The link will be provided via our social media platforms as soon as the site is live.

Today marks an important day in the political history of South Africa, because it is the day that we stopped relying on politicians to provide solutions that they do not have. Nearly without exception our politicians have never worked in a hospital, school, business or police station and lack the skills and knowledge to run the departments to which they have been assigned.

We will work with the many good South Africans in our country to craft the solutions to the problems that they live with every day.

Issued by Herman Mashaba, Founder, People’s Dialogue, 28 May 2020