Unpacking the State of Education in the KZN Province
February 10, 2020
Political tolerance is healthy for a democracy — as are dynamic exchanges
February 23, 2020
By: Sthabiso Mdledle
The Democracy Development Program hosted a post SONA forum at Elangeni Hotel in Durban on 20 February 2020.
This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his state of the nation address on 13 February 2020 in Parliament. However, these proceedings were disrupted when members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) demanded that former deputy president F.W. De Klerk leave the house after his comments about apartheid.
DDP was joined by renowned political analyst and researcher at the Helen Suzman Foundation, Gogo Aubrey Matshiqi as he unpacked the #SONA2020 and other political developments for civil society, youth, and the citizens in KwaZulu Natal.
“Looking into what happened in parliament during SONA and going back to the ANC’s response that FW De Klerk should leave the house, I was forced back into the feeling, that South Africa is a nation of Lions that are led by donkeys”, said Matshiqi.
He said that the fact that we still have a lot of unfinished business and that lack of reconciliation, the best we can archive under the current circumstances, is peaceful non-reconciliation.
“Because in the minds of too many, including De Klerk, those who are not white, to them remain people who are ontologically inferior and therefore, are not as human as they are, or at all, and therefore, apartheid could not have been a crime against humanity”, he added.
Amongst other things, the forum discussed the current state of the nation, looking into the economy of the country, health, the education system, as well as one of the biggest challenges in South Africa, being inequality.
The forum ended with a launch of DDP’s first volume of the Insights and Perspectives on Democracy: Empowering Citizenry Through Knowledge. This is a compendium of articles written by different authors based on our core areas of work. The book will be available for purchase by individuals, organizations, and academics at DDP by request.
