Chairperson, for weeks, the matter of the commission has been hanging in the air. Thankfully, we are here at last to talk about the Green Paper on National Strategic Planning.
The one thing almost all of us can agree on is the need for proper long- term and clear-sighted planning to effect cohesive and durable government programmes and a buy-in from all role-players.
Of plans, Robert Burns wrote:
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley, An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!
Since we, as Cope, agree with that, we need to place a few issues on the table. First of all, we support the report of the ad hoc committee. Therefore, we need to make a clear differentiation between a long-term strategic plan and plans for integrated government. Long-term plans take a long-term view; they are discussed by the people as a whole, and are not fundamentally altered by mandates that governments obtain in elections. Mandates are meant to deliver the long-term plans in an effective and efficient manner. The distinction between the two must remain clear.
The fact that the National Planning Commission, NPC, and the Minister in the Presidency: Performance Monitoring and Evaluation as well as Administration are located in the Presidency ought to signify to the nation that government is very serious about the three critical Ds - democracy, development and direction.
As Cope, we would have implemented an activist state so that people could start tasting the fruit of democracy rather that waiting for the developmental state to come about some time in the future.
People are losing confidence in the government. State enterprises are at sixes and sevens. Will these enterprises ever conform to any master plan? In our view, in these parastatals, self-interests will not allow the public interest to flourish.
It is common knowledge, as the Minister of Finance indicated yesterday, that corruption, like cancer, has spread throughout the government. Under these circumstances, will the NPC not just become another Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP, document where we have turf wars that will prevent the National Strategic Plan, NSP, from remaining intact?
I understand a few things about "iindlovu" [elephants.] and I, therefore, am asking if this will not just be a white elephant. Let's be very clear. Cope recognises that we need co-ordinated planning in South Africa so that we can have a clear vision of what we want to achieve as a nation. Our question is whether or not Ministries and government entities and agencies will sing from a common hymnbook. It is not with the theory that we are concerned, but the praxis.
For the government, this is indeed the last throw of the dice. The very credibility of the government hangs in the balance. It has to get this right.
When all the fundamentals are altering to such an extent and in such a manner, we have to be fundamentally certain that we have a plan that is credible, clear with a vision, relevant and practical. There are totally new imperatives in the new changed economic and natural landscape, and we must have a brilliant master plan.
The essence of this Green Paper is that we are pushing for what we can term OBG - that is an outcomes-based government. We hope that the obsession in government will not be with recordkeeping to the exclusion of implementation and delivery, because outcomes-based education, OBE, failed in schools, and OBG will fail in government if not properly executed.
I now come to the commissioners. The idea of using experts outside of government is a sterling idea until one considers what happened to Bobby Godsell.
Our concern in Cope as we look ahead is whether or not the national vision will cohere, given the manner in which contestations within the ruling party are currently taking place. Minister, let the challenges that you have in government be as complex as you can handle, but Cope is asking that the structure you are proposing as a solution be made lean and simple.
Cope is in favour of setting clear national goals, but, as with OBE, we do not want this government to become obsessive about administration and monitoring. Our support for the Green Paper is conditional on Parliament retaining its full mandate and power in respect of monitoring government. [Time expired.]