President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked the country’s National Planning Commission (NPC) to focus on giving advice on key developmental priorities linked to food security, water security, energy choices, social cohesion and structural reform.
The commission said the instruction was given after the president’s announcement that he has tasked labour, business and government to finalise a ‘new consensus’ for reigniting a recovery plan and to rethink the underperforming SA Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan through a “comprehensive social compact”.
In his state of the nation address in February, Ramaphosa said he wanted a new social compact within 100 days that will look at labour law reform, a basic income grant and investment targets for the private sector.
NPC deputy chairperson Professor Tinyiko Maluleke said on Monday the commission historically has achieved insufficient progress in implementing the National Development Plan (NDP).
The commission was established in May 2010 to develop a long term vision and strategic plan for SA. Its main objective o is to rally the nation around a common set of objectives and priorities to drive development over the long term.
Maluleke said one of the major findings of the NDP review was that its implementation was “weak”, and that little remedial action has been taken to address the shortcomings.
“As a result of the poor implementation track record, now made worse by the deadly devastation of Covid-19, the country has veered off its development course and targets set out in the NDP,” Maluleke said.
He added that one of the most urgent tasks facing the commissioners was that of facilitating a return to course.
The NPC review states that a major challenge facing SA is the inability of various sectors of society to place the broader national interest before their own sectoral interest, as well as the lack of trust between government, business and labour.
Political and ideological contestations in the state and in the governance of the country have shifted the NDP from being the central focus of government, according to the report.
For these and other reasons, the country has underperformed on various interim targets envisioned in the NDP, said Maluleke.
“Unemployment, poverty and inequality remain entrenched, and together with crime and violence, particularly against women and children, fuel social distress and negative national sentiment.”
“The private sector is largely withdrawn and lacks confidence and initiative, with the result that investment, growth and employment are suffocated,” the report said.
Minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele, who also serves as chairperson of the NPC, said the capacity of the state to drive the NDP’s development agenda has been eroded through a weakening and looting of key state institutions, poor management in the public service, ineffective support to SMMEs, rising debt and collapsing confidence.
Gungubele said the prevalence of poor service delivery, coupled with a slow-growing economy with limited inclusivity, is negatively affecting the social wage and undermining social cohesion.
“Furthermore, public finances are constrained, limiting government’s ability to expand its investment in economic and social development.
“Poor service delivery and a culture of labour unrest and widespread strikes create ruptures that undermine the growth of the social wage. The economy’s debt-to-GDP ratio and progressive downgrades by sovereign ratings agencies inhibit further borrowing to finance government’s expenditure,” he said.
Gungubele said there are many goals that remain achievable and should not be abandoned. “This review emphasises that SA must prioritise the biggest drivers of change if we are to realise progress to achieving the NDP’s 2030 goals,” he said.
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