“Presidents have always been difficult to access for a number of reasons and I hope because we said this is going to be very open and frank, you will allow me Mr President to be brutally frank. VIDEO –

Your Excellency the main problem that we had with accessing Presidents has been gatekeepers around the President. Literally those that are around Presidents, we had to work with them as if midzimu (spirit mediums) and just to getting to where you are is a struggle and for us having you here is exceptional and it is historic. So we broke with tradition in a number of ways. We broke with tradition in terms of how this meeting was even organised because tradition has always said we have to go and be vetted by security, our organisations have to say who funds them in case we are being funded by regime change agents. Your Excellency, we are glad we did not have to do that.

“We are also breaking the tradition around formalities so our seating arrangement here and the fact that you are sitting at that table, it is breaking the formalities. We are breaking the tradition because we have been prisoners of language so today isiNdebele, isiShona, isiNxosa siya sikhuluma. We are breaking from the tradition and being prisoners of the cockpit syndrome were only those around you is the voice that you hear.

“You are always saying your Excellency that the voice of the people is the voice of God but if that voice is only dominated by a particular people and a particular gender, it ceases to be the voice of God. So you will need today voices that are different and we are hoping that you will allow these voices to be as bold to challenge you but also for you to challenge us as for this interaction to be as good as we want it to be.”