Madam Deputy Speaker and hon members, my good friend, the hon Njikelana, and I share some common ground on this issue. He says that we are a developmental state in the process of being built. I am not sure if I agree with that, but we both agree that at this moment we are not a developmental state.
The saying that South Africa is a state crying out for swift and dramatic development is incontrovertible. Can we make poverty a thing of the past? The saying that South Africa is a developmental state is a delusion, and the often-repeated assertion to the contrary does not make it so. We lack too much to qualify.
Jac Laubscher, a Sanlam group economist, wrote the following in Business Day of 18 July 2007: "South Africa does not have an elite, meritocratic bureaucracy that attracts the best talent in the country..." Such a bureaucracy is of fundamental importance for a developmental state - one that I pleaded for earlier this year. In the classic sense, a developmental state enjoys unwavering and consistent government action within a context where all sectors of society are united in a single hegemonic development project. This is patently absent in South Africa.
We focus on redressing the wrongs of the past rather than on addressing a prosperous future for all. The wrongs of the past will be redressed and their effects erased when everyone is given the capability to share in general prosperity. When the focus is on making poverty history, then all sectors of society will unite with the willingness to make the necessary sacrifices.
There has been development over the past 13 years and some very real achievements too - especially in the important, but limited areas of housing, domestic water and electricity supply. But, how do the overall developmental advances measure up against what is actually required to make poverty history? The answer to this is: "Very badly." Revisiting the miserable list of government policy failures - stretching from health to education, unemployment reduction and industrial policy - is unnecessary. They are well-documented.
Suffice it to say that the Finance Minister's economic growth projections indicating a steady decline in growth from 4,9% this year to 4,5% next year before returning to only about 5% per year in 2009 and 2010 gainsays any claim to a successful developmental state. Given a target of 6% growth per annum, we can accept that the target area will not even be challenged by 2010. Since the growth target was set with a goal of halving poverty by 2014, we are clearly further than ever from achieving this. If that is development, then all one can ruefully say is: "Some development, some state."
Should South Africa; or even, can South Africa become a developmental state in the classical sense. The phrase "developmental state" was coined by an American political scientist, ... [Interjections.]