07 June 2007

The Platform for Public Deliberation Presents:Towards a Common Future: Public Conversations on Leadership with Tokyo Sexwale

Date: 7 June 2007
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Venue: Great Hall, University of the Witwatersrand

RSVP essential / For more information or to RSVP visit
www.public-conversations.org.za
or contact Lenore on (011) 7174674

Leadership has become the most vexing question of our times. The ruling African National Congress is consumed with who will succeed Thabo Mbeki both as president of the party and the country or whether Mbeki will make himself available for another term as ANC president. However, this is against the backdrop of claims that leadership is an internal ANC matter to be decided by its members at its leadership elections in December 2007.

Potential candidates are dissuaded from making themselves available for consideration until they are called upon by the party. Leadership selection becomes a matter of backroom dealing. This closed process prevents the public from participating in the leadership process and at worst is likely to have a chilling effect on leadership development in the ANC and the country. This project is an attempt to promote public deliberation on leadership beyond the confines of party political process. After all, whoever becomes head of the ANC is likely to have a great impact on the collective life of our nation. The Platform has thus invited a number of influential figures - inside and outside the ANC - to engage with the public in a process of collective imagination about our future. ANC potential presidential candidate Tokyo Sexwale will launch this series at the Wits University Great Hall at 6pm on 7 June 2007.