South Africa’s Presidency calls for a social media dialogue on nation building

The South African government is reaching out via social media to the nation in an attempt to “stimulate a constructive Nation Building debate on values and ethics”. The debate is taking place from the 28th of March until the 1st of April on the Presidency’s Facebook page.

This national outreach program has been created by the National Planning Commission (NPC), a body chaired by the Minister in The Presidency for National Planning, Trevor Manuel. The NPC has been tasked with developing a draft long term Vision Statement and Strategic National Plan 2025 for South Africa.

It was nearly one year ago that the Presidency announced that “the new administration would do things differently and would work consistently to change the way government works”, and this looks to be a step in the right direction for people to have a say in how they want the country to be governed. The National Planning Commission is made up of many distinguished South Africans, including the likes of Bobby Godsell, Cyril Ramaphosa, Elias Masilela, Jerry Vilakazi and Jennifer Molwantwa amongst others.

See the full list of members of the Planning Commission.

At present, there are 9 358 people who “Like” the Presidency’s Facebook page, but it seems likely that this campaign will increase the numbers considerably. On Twitter, the official Presidency account has 10 800 followers and tweets regularly to the nation.

So if you have any good ideas on nation building, this is your chance to get onto your favourite social media platform and share them with the people who can help get them implemented.