Indlulamithi Scenarios ‘not another sangoma moment’, says Ramaphosa

The Indlulamithi Scenarios 2030 initiative is “not another sangoma moment for our nation”, but a process which will provoke many South Africans, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday.

South Africa’s head of state was speaking in Johannesburg, at the launch of the initiative – where three scenarios, determined from research, were revealed, to paint of a picture of where the country could find itself in 2030.

The president embraced what was put forward.

“I would like to regard the Indlulamithi process as not another sangoma moment for our nation, where we look at what sangomas often do and say – this is what can happen and what can’t,” he said in a keynote address.

In fact, he regarded scenario planning as an important process that could be used to better plan for the future and to understand threats and opportunities that ahead.

“We already have the National Development Plan (NDP) which has been embraced by all, and it should be seen as the building blocks of where we want to go as South Africa. The Indlulamithi process is putting in the legs that will make us move to the aspirations that we have all expressed through the NDP,” he added.

According to the findings and forecasts, SA could either find itself as an enclave bourgeois nation torn by deepening social divides; a nation in step with itself with growing social cohesion or worse, a demoralised land of disorder and decay.

But that’s only if it fails to get to work on three driving forces shared in the research – social inequality; resistance, resentment and reconciliation; and institutional and leadership capacity, the research suggests.

Ramaphosa attended the launch alongside former president Thabo Mbeki and opposition party leaders, Mmusi Maimane of the DA and Bantu Holomisa of the UDM.

The president, who had a preview of the scenarios, thanked the research team and contributors tasked with putting together the study, “who seized the moment to begin building these thought-provoking scenarios during times of uncertainty,” and for the intellectual rigour.

This process will provoke many South Africans, he cautioned.

“Many will not agree with all the details of the three pictures painted by the Indlulamithi team, of our beloved country in 2030.”

Ramaphosa, who is also an avid game farmer said that he once witnessed a blindfolded Indlulamithi or giraffe knock into trees and other objects during its transportation – because human error had interfered with its smooth delivery to its natural habitat.

“We don’t want this process to be blindfolded by anyone of us, especially anyone of us seated here including you Mmusi Maimane and myself,” he said.

Adding that “the future is a choice, not an inevitable fate. We can all influence many of the choices that push our country in one direction or another. They reinforce the notion of urgency.”

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