The IJR and UJ cordially invite you to a Mail & Guardian Critical Thinking Forum event on the topic of Finding a developmental consensus in an era of radical economic transformation.

A recurrent theme of this year’s edition of the IJR’s annual Transformation Audit is the need for two key social actors – business and the government – to pool their collective resources and forge a new consensus for long-term social and economic change. However, in the post-1994 South African context, the relationship between business and the state has been complex and multi-layered. Mistrust and misunderstanding between business and the government have deepened over time. On the one hand, perceptions persist that large South African corporates resist social transformation, and are not prepared to contribute towards addressing the structural legacy of apartheid. At the same time, rhetoric that espouses radical economic solutions, without putting substantive alternatives on the table, poses an equally perilous threat to the cohesion of South African society.

In light of this, we invite members of the public to a moderated discussion on the possibility of achieving a new social compact, implying ‘a consensus’, at a time when the word ‘radical’ is increasingly being used in relation to potential solutions