2 days ago
How National Treasury cut costs of national dialogue
The National Treasury has put the brakes on planned spending on the national dialogue by banning air travel for delegates in three provinces neighbouring Gauteng, capping costs for hotel stays and halting the purchase of smartphones for facilitators.
These are among the measures to ensure a major cost reduction ahead of the first national convention to be held from Friday until Sunday. The national convention is a preparatory platform that will kick-start the national dialogue and its agenda.
At least 800 delegates are expected to form part of the dialogue scheduled for August 15 at Unisa's main campus in Pretoria, with eminent people from different groups expected to lead discussions.
Delegates from Mpumalanga, North West and Limpopo have been prohibited from using air travel, according to one insider. In addition, spending on the hosting of the secretariat of the dialogue within the National Economic and Labour Council (Nedlac) has been cut after a plan to buy cellphones for facilitators was shelved by the Treasury.
'Nedlac will now provide a monthly user allowance of R300 per facilitator for airtime and data,' said another insider.
TimesLIVE's sister publication, Sowetan, reported that in addition to the cost-cutting measures, the government plans to revive the Solidarity Fund as a platform to manage private sector contributions for the national dialogue.
The fund previously operated as a rapid response support vehicle for the government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It will now be tasked with accepting contributions from civil society and philanthropies that will offer financial and in-kind support.
Insiders said the government was planning to contribute up to 60% of the projected R450.4m cost of the dialogue, while the remainder would come from the private sector in various forms.
The spending cut will see projected overhead costs for the opening convention slashed from an initial R24.5m to R8.6m, largely due to confirmed in-kind sponsorships, according to sources.
'All pre-existing budget allocations for public engagement, including imbizos, dialogues on social cohesion, moral regeneration programmes and constituency engagements, must be repurposed to support the national dialogue,' said one insider.
