​Students and members of the public, especially those involved in non-governmental and community organisations, are invited to the Jannasch Lecture Hall, Konservatorium, Stellenbosch on 10 April 2019 to discuss what they would want in a future South Africa. The dialogue will be from 12 noon to 2pm.

Hosted by the Community Chest of the Western Cape, the District Six Museum, the One City, Many Cultures Cape Town Festival and the Faculty of Arts and Social Science at the University of Stellenbosch, this event follows similar discussions at the District Six Homecoming Centre in February and at Paarl Boys High in March. It will be followed by more events across the province in the next two months.

The discussion, facilitated by media expert Ryland Fisher and Babalwa Gusha, programme coordinator at Stellenbosch University’s Transformation Office, will reverse the traditional trend of panel discussions. The discussion will start with inputs from the floor and invited respondents in the audience will be allowed to comment at the end. This is to ensure that more people are able to participate in the discussion within the limited time allocated.

“We started with a discussion on the role of NGOs in an election year and followed this up with a discussion on the South Africa we all want to live in. It became clear that we needed to take this discussion outside of the Cape Town metropolitan area,” said Community Chest CEO Lorenzo Davids.

Bonita Bennett, Director of the District Six Museum, added: “We want to know from a broad range of people what are the issues we want government to deal with. How do we interact with government in a way that will help them achieve a more equitable society? How do we fix the many things that are wrong in our country so that we can all look forward to a better and more positive future? What do we want the country we live in to look like?

“We will bring together people who are interested in taking forward the vision of a more equitable society irrespective of political affiliation. Our aim is not to point fingers at anyone but to help in the search for solutions.”

Fisher said that after all the dialogues – the final one will be in May, after the elections – the organisers intend to draw up a report that will be circulated to senior politicians and municipalities throughout South Africa to give them an idea of the views of a broad range of South Africans.

The Stellenbosch dialogue will be the third in the “South Africa We Want” series, following after one in Paarl on Thursday 14 March.

Lights snacks will be served before and after the discussion.