Guest:  Darryl Swanepoel - Executive Director of Inclusive Society Institute. He wrote the Social Cohesion Index that was launched last week.

Guest: Dr Yacoob Abba Omar - Director of Operations at Mistra and Chair of the Social Cohesion Task Team of the NPC 

Guest: Rethabile Ratsomo - Non-Racialism Programme Manager at the Ahmad Kathrada Foundation 

Social Cohesion is essential to building a nation. While it seeks to address exclusion and inequality, it also needs to build integration among communities that consider the following aspects: Inclusion; National identity;

Belonging; Trust; Social relationships; Participation; Equality; and

Legitimacy. In a recent Social Cohesion Index conducted by the Inclusive Society Institute, it showed that signs of improvement where the wealthier provinces showed lower social-cohesion levels. Limpopo led in social cohesion with 56.5 points and KwaZulu-Natal recording the lowest score for social cohesion with 49.6 points.

As we prepare for national dialogue, we have brought together a panel that will deliberate on the following questions: What responsibility do we have to build Social cohesion? What are the values we need to set to building integrated communities? How do we become a nation where diverse people unite and harness unity from thought to action?