One of the tasks of the National Planning Commission (NPC) is to develop a Vision Statement for South Africa and a plan for the realisation of the society envisaged for the year 2030. The NPC has drafted and published a diagnostic document identifying the main challenges facing the country. The document’s authors stress that it not a plan but a precursor to the plan. It provides the foundation for the development of a plan to realise Vision 2030.

The NPC has invited all stakeholders to comment on the diagnostic document. There is no formal deadline or process for the submission of commentary. Comments may be submitted to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The NPC website indicates that the NPC will draft a Vision Statement by September 2011 and will thereafter engage in public consultations on the draft Statement.

The overarching challenge, attributable to our history as well as contemporary market forces, is the social and economic exclusion of millions of South Africans; this is reflected in our high levels of poverty and inequality. The document identifies two primary and priority solutions to addressing this: “our ability to create jobs for more people and to improve the quality of education, especially for poor black people.”

The report identifies and calls for urgent pro-active attention to the following continuing challenges facing South Africa:

1. Widespread poverty and extreme inequality

The diagnostic identifies the key strategic objectives as the elimination of poverty and the reduction of inequality.

In the context of widespread poverty and unemployment, the social wage – that is, government provisioning of housing, water, sanitation, schooling, primary health care and electricity to the poorest of South Africans – is essential in ensuring an acceptable standard of living. South Africa’s social wage accounts for 25% of government spending. The report expresses concern about the value for money when measuring the lower than expected return on addressing the standard of living, caused largely by poor quality services, especially in rural areas, and especially those in the former Bantustans.

The Diagnostic identifies two necessary courses of action to address poverty and inequality in South Africa. (a.) In the short-term, improve the standard of living within present income levels by improving the quality of services making up the social wage package. (b.) Improve income levels through improved job creation.

2. The quality of education for poor black South Africans

Given the high ratio of spending on education (6% of GDP), the quality of education and resulting education outcomes for poor children are unacceptable. There are largely two sets of factors impacting on the quality of education. The first relate to the standard of living at home – parental presence at home, parental literacy, the presence of books in the house, adequate nutrition, environments that are stimulating for young children, and so on. The second is poverty of the household. The solution lies in improving the quality of education and the circumstances at home in order to enhance quality of educational outcomes.

Notably, the Report singles out the need to improve the quality of Early Childhood Education and stimulation. It recognises that South Africa has taken a bold step in the introduction of Grade R to fill the early stimulation and development gap, but concludes that the quality of early childhood education and care for poor black communities is inadequate and generally very poor. The reason is largely because ECD is underfunded by government and is mainly provided through support by donors to NGOs. In addition, despite the policy commitment to ECD, implementation in the poorest communities lags behind.

3. Poorly located and inadequate infrastructure

Historical infrastructure development along racial lines as well as subsequent failures to address resulting infrastructure gaps and invest sufficiently in infrastructure modernisation have left a legacy of poorly located and inadequate infrastructure which limits social inclusion and economic growth.

4. Unsustainable resource-intensive economic development

South Africa’s economy and society continues to reflect and reproduce unsustainable high levels of dependence on non-renewable natural resources. This contributes to the poverty and inequality patterns along long-standing geographical and racial lines.

There is an urgent need to build a new development path that is more inclusive, less dependent on the exploitation of non-renewable resources, and that uses renewable resources more sustainably and strategically.

A key challenge for the NPC in crafting its Vision 2030 is to “[b]alance the potential benefits from further development of our natural resource and mineral endowments with a less energy-intensive development path that is more environmentally sustainable and which offers more opportunities for currently marginalised sectors of the population.”

5. Spatial challenges that continue to marginalise the poor

As a result of the spatial legacy of apartheid, “the poorest people live in remote rural areas.” Reaching this marginalised group of people to deliver the social wage and through job creation remains a critical challenge that must be overcome if there is any prospect of addressing the underlying challenges of high poverty and unemployment.

Reversing the effects of spatial apartheid requires addressing a number of related challenges, including poor coordination and high levels of fragmentation between national, provincial and local policies, powers and service delivery competencies. This results in poor delivery at the local level, especially in marginalised rural areas.

6. Ailing public health system

While the country’s disease burden is rising, the health system is collapsing. Much has been written about this, and the report summarises some of the proposals calling for urgent attention to be paid to improving the quality of services.

7. Performance of the public service is uneven

The report notes that we have a sophisticated and well-developed policy and legislative environment seeking to secure and protect the various rights, including the socio-economic rights of South Africans. Unfortunately, many South Africans do not benefit from the services because of poor and inconsistent service delivery. Consistently, there has been variation in the quality of services as between different provinces and as between different municipalities, with most rural municipalities being “in distress”.

The result: “Provincial and local governments are therefore least able to deliver services in the poorest and historically most marginalised areas where those services are most needed.”

Key issues that need to be addressed to remedy this imbalance include the redefinition of powers and functions of local government in the areas of housing, libraries, public transport, land use planning and local economic development. In addition, the channels of meaningful and effective participation and access to information as key elements of accountability and the proper exercise of authority must be improved, especially in rural marginalised local municipalities.

WEB LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE

Click here to view a copy of the NPC report.