Mbeki calls for national dialogue after ANC election defeat
Former ANC President Thabo Mbeki has called for a national dialogue at the ANC's National Executive Committee meeting.
The party is holding its post-election NEC meeting after losing its outright majority in the general elections.
The liberation movement dipped below 50% and was forced to govern in a coalition in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal after former ANC President Jacob Zuma spoiled the party with his Umkhonto Wesizwe party.
The ANC is now leading a coalition Government of National Unity with opposition parties.
ANC acting spokesperson Zuko Godlimpi briefed the media in Boksburg.
"A national dialogue, for it to be a true social compact, has got to include as representative as possible a cross section of the South African stakeholder framework.
"So that includes civil society formations and others. The discussion now has been about the modalities of how best we do that so that it has the legitimacy that it needs.
Godlimpi said the convention should be like reproducing the model of what the Freedom Charter did.
"We want to have a national conversation, a national dialogue whose outcomes will be as broadly representative of the spirit and understanding of the South African people,
"This includes making sure that you maximise the representation of the voice of the rural poor, of the farm dwellers, of all the other social forces in South Africa that might be neglected from everyday discourse,"
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