EXTRACT
Although he is the wrong person advocating it, Mngxitama is correct that there needs to be public debate on big issues. Apart from debates in parliament, we do not have a culture of issue-driven, vigorous public debates, particularly between the political protagonists.
We tend to have pockets of dialogue, mostly involving academics, analysts and commentators that reinforces their echo chambers.
During election season we have never had the leaders of political parties debate each other so that the voting public can make informed decisions about where the parties stand and how they measure up against each other on big policy issues.