Dept to host social cohesion dialogues

THE NORTHERN

Cape Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, together with the national department and the National Institute Community Development and Management (Nicdam) will be hosting community conversations on social cohesion in Orania in the Northern Cape today.

The conversations will continue tomorrow in Kimberley.

According to the department, the gatherings will provide an opportunity for leaders and various stakeholders to come together and have robust discussions on the issues around social cohesion and nation building.

These will include the role of race, language, values and morals, poverty alleviation, gender-based violence and safety and security in South Africa

The dialogues are part of the basket of resolutions taken at the 2012 national social cohesion summit in Kliptown, which attracted a broad spectrum of South African society.

At the summit, among the resolutions that were taken, it was resolved that the Department of Arts and Culture, as the co-ordinating department for social cohesion and nation building on behalf of government, must create dialogic platforms with the aim of bridging socio-historical divisions created by many years of colonial and apartheid misrule.

These dialogues are important as they will assist government in ascertaining the efficacy of current interventions meant to promote social cohesion and nation building.

The 2017/18 round of dialogues will be the third since the commencement of the dialogues in 2015/16.

The conversations will be held in Orania today and tomorrow at the Sol Plaatje University, at midday.

For more enquiries regarding the social cohesion dialogues, members of the public can contact Conrad Fortune on

079 873 0679 or Morapedi Sekhoane on

078 944 0200.