STEVEN FRIEDMAN: Assuming that our future depends entirely on who holds office masks reality
SA is ensuring that Zuma’s purge changed much less than he hoped and his opponents feared, but the obsession with personalities hides this
Are those who want the country to talk ready for the discussions we really need? And are they willing to hear everyone who must be heard? In theory, a call by a range of foundations for a national dialogue is just what SA needs. And what better way to give it added seriousness than choosing all living former presidents to lead it? But, as our current national debate shows, talk can do as much to duck problems as to face them. It can also silence people rather than giving them a voice. The discussion launched last week could offer a path out of a debate that ducks and silences — but it could be just a better-heeled version of what we have now. The Cabinet reshuffle and ANC leadership contest have amplified a political debate in which everyone assumes that the cause of all problems is a few politicians and that our future depends entirely on who holds office. This does more to hide reality than to face it.First, the weeks since the reshuffle have shown that the claim that we are saved...
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