DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille is expected to raise concerns in a meeting this week with ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula about her party’s inclusion in preparations for the upcoming National Dialogue, according to City Press.
The newspaper reports that Zille wrote to Mbalula last week to express her dissatisfaction that the DA was being excluded.
According to her, City Press says, the national dialogue is being organised from Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s office in cooperation with the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).
A national dialogue to forge a common vision for South Africa’s future was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his Opening of Parliament address last month.
He said: “Through this national dialogue, we’re called to be agents of change, to be champions of inclusive growth, to be creators of opportunity.”
Zille is quoted as saying that the DA is “in a power-sharing government with the ANC and we have to be central to planning the national dialogue, determining participation and framing a proposed outcome”.
City Press said she and Mbalula were to meet in Johannesburg about this on Thursday.