Government to utilise own facilities for National Dialogue to cut costs
The entire process was initially estimated to cost more than R700 million, leading to critics calling it an expensive talkshop.
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday 15 August 2025 at National Dialogue Convention in Pretoria. Picture: Sphamandla Dlamini/ EWN.
JOHANNESBURG - In an effort to bring down the cost of the National Dialogue, government said it will be using its own facilities to host the events.
The National Dialogues will be spread out over nine months, with organisers criss-crossing the country, engaging South Africans.
The entire process was initially estimated to cost more than R700 million, leading to critics calling it an expensive talkshop.
READ: Ramaphosa emphasises National Dialogue as a platform for tough questions
Speaking at the National Dialogue Convention in Pretoria on Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said he could not allow for the event to cost this much.
“The Unisa VC, said to cut off all those costs, said we will give you this beautiful venue for free, and now we got it for free, and that’s exactly what we will seek to do. We will be going around the country, we will desist from hiring expensive halls and hotels and so on, we will want to hold the various dialogues in schools, churches but not in beer halls. We will hold them under the tree and all that because the people of SA do not want us to be spending too much money on the conversations we are going to have.”