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.

Ramaphosa's African National Congress (ANC) is touting the dialogue as a "conversation among South Africans" to chart a brighter future, but it has been met with scepticism by critics.

The Democratic Alliance, the second-largest party in the rocky year-old government of national unity, has labelled the process as "meaningless" and an "obscene waste" of money and said it would not take part.

Shared national vision

The two-day convention was snubbed by key backers of the dialogue, including former president Thabo Mbeki, after complaints that it had been rushed and concerns about the budget.

Ramaphosa called on people from across the diverse nation of 63 million to take part.

"We must aim to emerge from this process with a shared national vision: one that is bold enough to inspire, yet practical enough to implement," he said.