THE President’s quest for an extra-Parliamentary mandate in the face of ANC failure to gain a Parliamentary majority, necessitating a ruling coalition, is failing to persuade anyone.

In delivering his political sermon today, Ramaphosa appeared to be seeking a mandate beyond the ruling coalition, one that bypasses South Africa’s electoral process, in which citizens vote for representatives in Parliament who in turn vote for the President.

Not only is the R740 million boondoggle a costly window-dressing exercise, but several of its key players, including the Mbeki, Biko, Tutu & Tambo foundation withdrew, citing what they perceive as an ‘irreconcilable conflict between government and the public sphere’.

Stating that the executive leading an initiative of this scale, external to Parliament is a democratic ‘conflict of interest’ would be putting it mildly.

The National Assembly could do well to withdraw the President from his current office on the basis of a clear breach of executive powers.

The reasons are obvious, a ‘national dialogue’ is exactly what Parliament does when it convenes between sessions, — electing representatives to the House of Assembly is considered the most efficient means of gaining access to the nation’s democratic process, which the new-fangled presidential structure is set to duplicate along with all the problems this entails.

Need one mention the phrase, irregular dictatorship, and how exactly would the so-called dialogue arrive at any resolutions?

At about R9.5 million per school, the President could have built 77 new schools for the same budget, but the ANC leader isn’t about education and service delivery, rather power.

To put the problem in a nutshell, the Ramaphosa’s ANC failed to win the last election and there is nothing that can be done about it, aside from calling another election.

Ramaphosa’s strategy of bolting on new forums, committees, and commissions alongside a vast array of deputy ministers in order to cement control over the current GNU, has meant South Africa has one of the most expensive cabinets in the world.

This is par for the course for ANC political ideology that sees Big Government as the solution to every social problem, the numbers suggest otherwise.