Ramaphosa hints at working with Mbeki on national dialogue after elections, says polls will be safe

President Cyril Ramaphosa wants to work with former president Thabo Mbeki after the elections to convene a national dialogue to address “enormous challenges” faced by South Africans and come up with solutions.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Cosatu national workers' day rally at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town on Wednesday, Ramaphosa said he supported Mbeki's proposal for a national dialogue.

“We need to continue consolidating the consensus process that brings everyone together. Working together with people like him [Mbeki] and others to bring that process of getting people to talk. What will we talk about? The economy and how we can have an economy that is going to produce jobs. How we can embark on efforts to rid our country of poverty. Calling for a dialogue fits in very well, I support that proposal,” he said.

Ramaphosa said the hotly contested elections would be “a walk in the park” and he did not expect any intense security risks.

Former MK Party interim youth leader Bonginkosi Khanyile and member Visvin Reddy previously threatened disruption of the elections amid the party's legal debacles. Reddy has been charged with incitement of violence by the NPA. 

“Our entire security system is well geared to deal with whatever can happen but we do not expect anything to happen. We are going to run a normal election, as we have done [previously],” Ramaphosa said.

“This will be the seventh time we go to the polls. Having gone through the very first election, which was very difficult, when we did not have registered voters, this one will be a walk in the park again.

“We are going to have a very good election with no interference and no disruption, nothing that will produce an outcome that will even be doubted. I am confident of that.” 

After joining the ANC's election campaign last week, Mbeki proposed a national dialogue, saying there was a need for South Africans to discuss challenges and solutions.

“Currently I am engaged in serious discussions with a number of our national foundations because I am certain the country as a whole will benefit greatly from their collective voice on the matter of the national dialogue. I am certain that during May it will be possible to present to the country as a whole a more detailed proposal concerning the proposed national dialogue,” he said at an event celebrating the 30th anniversary of South Africa’s democracy at Freedom Park on Tuesday.

The national dialogue would be held after the elections.

“At the heart of many of the problems our country faces lies the brute reality of a counter-revolutionary intervention which began some years ago. I suggest that to respond to the enormous challenges created by the counterrevolution, our people should convene in a new and truly inclusive national dialogue to answer the question — what is to be done? Of course that national dialogue would be held later this year, after the general elections.”

TimesLIVE