MK Party Slams National Dialogue as Costly “Political Theatre” Amid Service Delivery Crisis
Evident Makatwane 
The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) has launched a scathing attack on the government’s National Dialogue, dismissing it as an expensive political stunt that undermines parliamentary oversight while essential public services continue to deteriorate across the country.
In a strongly worded statement, the party claimed that the Dialogue convened under Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s Inter-Ministerial Committee lacks any legal mandate, parliamentary approval, or constitutional standing. The MK Party accused the Presidency of using the platform to bypass democratic processes and create “a parallel state” for advancing African National Congress (ANC) political interests.
“This is not citizen-led, it is ANC-led,” the statement read. “The Ministry of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) has disgracefully allowed public resources to be poured into a politically engineered ‘Convention’ that has no place in the constitutional order.”
Hidden Costs and Alleged Misuse of Resources
While organisers of the Dialogue have touted “reduced costs” due to donated venues and equipment, the MK Party insists that the true financial burden is being concealed from the public. The party alleges that taxpayer funds are still covering officials’ salaries, travel, accommodation, and operational expenses, diverting time and resources from critical service delivery.
They further accused the DPME of failing to uphold its mandate of preventing wasteful expenditure and ensuring that public spending addresses urgent national priorities.
Neglected Service Delivery Across Provinces
The party outlined a grim picture of the current state of basic services, highlighting crises in all nine provinces, including:
- Eastern Cape: Rural clinics closed due to medicine shortages and unpaid staff.
- KwaZulu-Natal: Communities in eThekwini going weeks without clean water.
- Limpopo: Schools lacking desks, forcing children to sit on floors.
- Northern Cape: Ambulance response times exceeding four hours.
- Free State: Municipalities under administration unable to collect refuse for months.
- Mpumalanga: Continued use of pit latrines despite court orders for eradication.
- Western Cape: Informal settlements without electricity despite allocated budgets.
- North West: Impassable rural roads cutting farmers off from markets.
- Gauteng: Hospitals turning patients away due to equipment failures and staff shortages.
The MK Party is demanding:
- An immediate halt to all state spending on the Dialogue.
- Full disclosure of every cent and resource used.
- A list of government programmes affected by the Dialogue’s funding.
- A parliamentary inquiry into the DPME’s handling of the matter.
The party contends that legality under the Public Finance Management Act does not equal legitimacy, stressing that the Dialogue is absent from the Medium-Term Strategic Framework, the State of the Nation Address priorities, and measurable development targets.
“This National Dialogue is a Trojan horse for backroom political deals, not a platform for genuine national problem-solving,” the statement concluded. “South Africans deserve transparency, accountability, and a government that fixes the crises it has created not one that stages costly theatre to distract from its failures.”
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