WATCH LIVE | Can we overcome Zuma's dysfunctional legacy?

For the vast majority of South Africans, uncovering the people who lit the kindling for the firestorm of destruction and looting that recently ravaged parts of KZN and Gauteng is the first step towards economic and societal recovery. But there are other steps that need to follow immediately — far quicker than the ANC appears willing to act.

In a guest essay for the New York Times, William Shoki astutely describes the factionalism that is tearing the ANC — and the country — apart at the seams, all in the name of disgraced former president Jacob Zuma.

“A spurious ideology of 'Radical Economic Transformation', spun as a radical challenge to SA’s white-dominated private sector, provided rhetorical cover for corruption and patronage. Now removed from power, the beneficiaries of Mr Zuma’s rule are determined to wreak havoc,” writes Shoki. “And yet no political force looks able to hold the ANC to account.”

Despite more than a quarter century of democracy and majority rule, the divide between the haves and the have-nots has widened, with the top 10% of the population owning 95% of the wealth (Stats SA 2017). SA also has one of the highest Gini coefficients — the statistical measure of the economic disparity within a population — in the world.

Against this backdrop, how do we go about building a cohesive, strong, and equitable society?

Join the Business Day Dialogues LIVE in association with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Ecumenical Foundation of Southern Africa as business, religious, academic and civil society leaders tackle the underlying issues and discuss the ethical leadership that is required to restore hope for a shared future in SA, where no-one gets left behind.

Hear more from:

• Bonang Mohale — chancellor of the University of the Free State, chairman of Bidvest Group Ltd and chairman of SBV;
• Bishop Sithembele Sipuka — president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference;
• Lukanyo Mnyanda — editor, Business Day; and
• Jonathan Jansen — professor of education at Stellenbosch University and president of the Academy of Science of SA.

Moderated by: Nompumelelo Runji

Date: Wednesday August 18 

Time: 9am-10am