South Africa opens national dialogue to find solutions to problems

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

The nationwide public consultation comes with Africa's most industrialised nation still grappling with high 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.

Land reform

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

Priorities listed by organisers included high crime and land reform, with most farmland still in the hands of the white minority.