Dinokeng Scenarios

THE DINOKENG PROCESS / CONTINUED
VOICES OF DINOKENG
Perspectives from members of
the Dinokeng Scenario Team.
➙ We are facing enormous
challenges such as poverty,
underdevelopment, health and
education. And like a computer,
we are hanging.
Through the course of the process, the Team refined their analysis of the primary underlying
trends and the most urgent and critical challenges facing the country. This analysis is
reflected in the diagnosis and Dinokeng message.
In the third and fourth workshops the Team built on their diagnosis of the present to construct
the scenarios and develop the Dinokeng Message.
PHASE TWO
Phase two of the Dinokeng process entails the dissemination of the Dinokeng message to
audiences across South Africa. This will involve the development of materials to facilitate
communication through the media, and to support a series of meetings, presentations
and workshops.
In effect, this phase of the process was set in motion after the first workshop when
Scenario Team members began sharing the purpose of Dinokeng within their own networks,
and has continued through regular briefings of influential stakeholders.
A big plus for South Africa is
that we have a constitutional
democracy. We must ensure that
we make the Constitution breathe
life and make it a living reality.
We have values enshrined in
the Constitution, which we
must defend.
GUIDING PILLARS
In undertaking this exercise, the Scenario Team has been guided by two pillars. The first
pillar rests on the fundamental values outlined in the Constitution. The second pillar is
the heritage of our past.
Any diagnosis of the present is, by its very nature, a highly contested exercise. This was
particularly the case in a group as diverse as the Dinokeng Scenario Team. What is presented,
therefore, is not a consensus position. Rather, it captures the collective wisdom of the group,
grounded in a common commitment to the values of the Constitution and an acknowledge -
ment of the heritage of our past. Invariably, the perceptions are largely subjective but, we
have drawn on external expertise and substantiated our reasoning with factual research
wherever possible.
South Africa’s Constitution was the result of a difficult but inclusive negotiation process.
It was drafted with an acute awareness of the injustices of the country's non-democratic
past in order never to repeat the mistakes of the past. It is widely regarded as one of the
most progressive constitutions in the world, with a Bill of Rights second to none. According
to former President Mandela:
“The Constitution of South Africa speaks of both
the past and the future. On the one hand, it is
a solemn pact in which we, as South Africans,
declare to one another that we shall never permit
a repetition of our racist, brutal and repressive
past. But it is more than that. It is also a charter
for the transformation of our country into one
which is truly shared by all its people – a country
which in the fullest sense belongs to all of us, black
and white, women and men.” 1
4
Endnotes can be found on pages 72 and 73