Minister on the Diagnostic Overview of the National Planning Commission

Meeting report

The Minister in the Presidency for National Planning, the Hon Trevor Manuel, presented the Committee with an overview of the 450-page National Development Plan, outlining the vision for South Africa by the year 2030, which was tabled in Parliament on November 11 – exactly 18 months after it had been commissioned by the President.

Sketching the background, Mr Manuel said the Commission comprised 25 part-time members drawn from academia, the business community and the professions, with himself as the only full-time commissioner.
The report was purely advisory, and would now be subject to public consideration before being returned to the Cabinet for adoption. Entrenched in the plan were the values of the Constitution, so the policies to be embraced included social solidarity and pro-poor policies, non-racialism and non-sexism, and the need to redress the ills of the past.

The Commissioners had learnt a lot from a wide range of interactions, including a 72-hour on-line discussion with 10 000 young South Africans. There was a need to talk about policy and change to young people, because it was “going to be their South Africa in 2030.” The modes of communication the Commission had chosen, such as YouTube” and on-line media, were focused on reaching the younger generation. The vision that had been crafted in the plan was about what South Africa was capable of doing.

In considering the way forward, the drivers of change over the next 20 years had had to be identified. Six issues had been highlighted. These were:
▪ Tilt in the economic centre of gravity, from west to east, with China playing an increasingly important role.
▪ Inter-connectivity, through rapid advances in communication technology, such as cell phones.
▪ Globalisation, with countries becoming more inter-connected.
▪ Climate change, with weather patterns becoming less predictable and affecting agriculture.
▪ Technological advances would make a big impact.
▪ The resurgence of Africa.
South Africa would ignore these issues “at its peril,” and policies would have to be developed to deal with them over time.

Demographics would also have an effect, with South Africa’s population forecast to reach 58,5 million by 2030 although fertility rates were declining. During the past 20 years, the urban-rural split had moved from 50-50 to 60-40, and it would reach 70-30 in 20 years’ time. This was important for planning purposes, as one could not have people coming into towns and occupying informal settlements and land. At the moment, South Africa had a large youth population, but actuarial forecasts were that by 20 30 there would be fewer teenagers than now, which raised implications as far as schooling was concerned.

Mr Manuel said there needed to be a paradigm shift in the way South Africans engaged as a country. There could no longer be a mindset that the government believed it delivered while the people waited, and when it did not deliver, the people toyi-toyied, and when they were tired of toyi-toying, they burnt down libraries. This was not a model for development. What was needed was active citizenry, with people engaging with community organisations, strong leadership in all walks of life, and capable and effective government. Giving people the capability to follow this route would involve fighting illiteracy and hunger, and dealing with harsh life circumstances. The goal was to create a “virtuous circle” that would lead to better opportunities, rising living standards, poverty reduction, economic growth and increased employment. This would be a continuous process with a strong emphasis on social cohesion.

At the diagnostic stage, the elimination of poverty and the reduction in inequality had been placed at the centre of the Plan’s activities. After fairly extensive work, the Commission had identified nine challenges impacting on these two objectives. Firstly, too few people worked, and educational outcomes were poor for the majority of South Africans, which created a strong correlation between inadequate schooling and unemployment. The other challenges were the country’s crumbling infrastructure, its resource-intensive economy, spatial divides (as a legacy of Group Areas), a high disease burden, poor public service, corruption and divided communities (a complex nation with 11 official languages). These nine challenges were turned around to form the first nine planks of the Plan. For instance, “too few jobs” became “create jobs,” and so on. Four areas of detailed work had been added to the nine challenges. These were: an inclusive rural economy; community safety; social protection; and understanding South Africa in Africa, and in the world.

Turning to the aspect of the Plan about which the Portfolio Committee was most concerned – the capability of the state – Mr Manuel said South Africa was so divided that affluent people could opt out of the system by living in gated communities, where wealth guaranteed the provision of services, and private schools and hospitals were available. However, poor people did not have this option and were absolutely dependent on the public service, and if it did not deliver quality services across the board, this disadvantaged people who needed democracy. A professional public service was therefore a good starting point in creating a capable state. Best practice required that public servants were informed by the government policies of the day, and the Plan envisaged them being immersed in the government’s development agenda, but insulated from undue political influence. Every public servant should become a “developmental cadre.” To enhance oversight, the role of the Public Service Commission should be boosted. !t was also proposed that an administrative head of the public service should be created, to enhance the quality of administration within government departments.

The public service should not be considered the place to go when one could not find a job, but rather a career of choice. A government-wide graduate trainee programme was required, and career paths needed to be created for technical specialists so that skills could be retained in the civil service. The relationship between the three tiers of government should be improved, and metros given a coherent set of powers. Further measures to build a capable state included improving state-owned enterprises and professionalising – and de-militarising – the police force.

The Commission had adopted a “no compromise” approach to the fight against corruption, which was a challenge to both the public and private sector. The tender compliance office should be given more powers, and legal and political steps needed to be taken to insulate anti-corruption agencies from political interference, and to ensure they were not under-resourced. Other proposals included setting up dedicated prosecution teams and specialist courts to speed up corruption cases, as instances of officials being suspended and staying at home for four years on full pay set a bad example. It was also proposed that civil servants be prevented from participating in certain kinds of business activities, although Mr Manuel said he would have preferred it to apply to all kinds of business activities. Protection of whistle-blowers should be expanded.

Teachers were extremely important “development cadres”, so teacher training needed to be increased. Regular testing of teachers to determine their levels of knowledge and competence would highlight weaknesses, because if they were not able to transmit knowledge to an eight-year-old child, what chance in life did that child have? It was also proposed to link teacher pay to learner performance. School principals often did not know how to manage schools and oversee teachers, so the Plan looked at changing the process of principal appointments, and sought to reduce political and union interference in appointments. The country desperately needed maths, science, technology and English language teachers, and these would have to be recruited while new teachers were being trained.

Proper nutrition for pregnant women to prevent low birth weight was considered essential, as expert opinion was that a child’s cognitive development began in uterus. Other objectives were to ensure that all children had two years of pre-school education, and school learner retention rates needed to increase to 90%. Last year, just under 600 000 learners wrote matric, compared with 1,4 million who entered grade 1 in 1999. Of those who wrote, 430 000 passed, and only 13% received university passes. Further Education & Training (FET) colleges had to be expanded to meet the need for 30 000 artisans a year, while increases were also needed in a wide range of academic disciplines. Full funding assistance should be provided to deserving and capable students in the form of loans and bursaries, covering tuition, books, accommodation and living expenses.

Mr Manuel said links between post-school education and the workplace needed to be improved. Many students left tertiary institutions ill-quipped for the outside world, unable even to write a letter, so they could not persuade employers to offer them a job. This transition had to be facilitated, as it was “a tragedy” to see graduates unable to find employment.

At this stage, the Plan was a proposal, not driven by any particular party, and the Commission was inviting detailed and positive feedback so that it could be refined prior to final submission in four to six months’ time. Members were advised that submissions could be made by telephone (012 308 1791) or Email ([email protected]), as well as Twitter and Facebook.

Discussion
Mr A Williams (ANC) said he had initially been very sceptical about the Planning Commission, as it could have painted the country as a happy place and downplayed the protest activities. However, there had been a frank and truthful analysis of the situation, which showed how serious the government was about creating a better life for all.

Ms J Maluleke asked what could be done to help students to bridge the gap between the learning institution and the workplace.

Mr Manuel said this problem existed at two levels – after school and post graduation – and one of the proposals was to extend three-year courses to four years, thus creating the opportunity to include some life skills in the curriculum. Another was to facilitate further training after college to equip people to enter the labour market.

Ms Maluleke asked whether implementation of the Plan would begin in the urban or rural areas.

Mr Manuel said the Plan would have to be implemented in different places at the same time, with education and jobs being the priorities.

Ms Maluleke said emphasis was being placed on education, yet schools in rural areas still lacked facilities such as text books and laboratories.

Mr Manuel said that one of the tragedies of South Africa was that a lot was spent on education, and this was supposed to be used to buy infrastructure and to pay teachers’ salaries. When he was Minister of Finance, he knew how much was set aside for infrastructure in the Eastern Cape. Money was assigned for eliminating mud schools, but it was not spent on infrastructure. There was absolutely no reason at all why any child should not be fed at school, given the money that was made available – no reason, except the greed of those who wanted to do this by way of tenders. The same applied for text books. The problems were the result of slackness, not a lack of money, and there needed to be high levels of accountability to address the challenges. He agreed that the schools needed laboratories, and teachers to teach in the laboratories, as well as libraries and internet facilities.

Mr M Manana (ANC) said corruption had set the country back considerably, and he welcomed the proposed anti-corruption proposals. He was concerned, however, that the curbs on civil servants engaging in certain business activities would lead to “fronting” by service providers. He suggested that this problem should be addressed by setting up specialist courts to speed up prosecutions which should be directed not only at civil servants, but also service providers.

Mr Manuel said that displaying intolerance to “fronting” would help matters. In the short term, people used to living off the proceeds of theft would get “big shocks.”

Ms H van Schalkwyk (DA) said the Plan represented a big step forward, and congratulated all involved in its compilation. During a recent constituency visit, she had gone to a number of schools and discussed the budget allocation of 6% of gross domestic product (GDP) to education, and had heard a number of reasons as to why the schools were performing poorly.

Mr Manuel said every primary school had received the results of the Annual National Assessments. This enabled principals and staff to identify where they were falling short, and where they needed to improve. However, a competent manager was required to improve the situation, and a school with a dedicated principal who could manage staff could do well even in a poor environment.

Ms M Mohale (ANC) said the original Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) had people believing it would improve their lives, but now they were saying they were still living at the same level. Would the Plan really change peoples’ lives?

Mr Manuel said the Plan would remain merely a 450-page document containing 194 000 words unless everyone took responsibility as a leader for driving change. Those who were involved in the struggle for democracy had mobilised to achieve change, and the message now was that people must be mobilised again, and not sit back and wait for change to happen. The community should no longer be tolerant of incompetence, but should take ownership of their own affairs through active citizenry.

The Chairperson thanked the Minister for his presentation and closed the meeting.