Ramaphosa urges dialogue, unity to fix 'broken' South Africa

Pretoria: President Cyril Ramaphosa urged South Africans to come together to find solutions to the country s many problems, launching Friday a months...

Pretoria: President Cyril Ramaphosa urged South Africans to come together to find solutions to the country's many problems, launching Friday a months-long "national dialogue" dismissed by critics as a costly talk shop.

The nationwide public consultation comes with Africa's most industrialised nation still grappling with massive poverty and inequality 30 years after the end of apartheid.

"We all agree that there are many things that are broken in our country," Ramaphosa told a convention of more than 1,000 people that will draw up a roadmap for local-level meetings across the country over six to nine months.

"By getting together, talking to each other, we should be able to find solutions on how we can put many of the things that are broken in our country together," he said.

Among the problems Ramaphosa cited were unemployment that has passed 33 percent and inequality, among the starkest in the world.