NATIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION: The plan is about achieving this shift in perspectives and relationships. It also contains very specific recommendations. For example, in the chapter on an integrated and rural economy, we focus on support systems that will give life to land redistribution. We need to put land to productive use. We estimate that agriculture has the potential to create close to a million jobs almost immediately if these plans are implemented effectively. To achieve this, we need to do a few things urgently.
We must expand irrigated agriculture by substantially investing in water resource and irrigation infrastructure. We must create security of tenure for communal farmers. This is vital if we are to secure incomes for existing farmers and new entrants. We must investigate flexible systems of land use for different kinds of farming on communal lands. We need also to invest substantially in providing innovative market linkages for small- scale farmers in the communal and land reform areas, with provision to link these farmers to markets in South Africa and further afield on the subcontinent.
We must put in place preferential procurement mechanisms to ensure that new entrants into agriculture can access the "food away from home" market, including school feeding schemes and other forms of institutionalised catering. We must give greater support to public-private partnerships to develop underexploited opportunities. Examples of regions with untapped potential include the Makatini Flats and the Umzimvubu Basin in the Eastern Cape.
Next year, as the President reminded us, marks the centenary of the 1913 Land Act. This Act reshaped the political geography of South Africa in dramatic ways. It transformed spatial settlement patterns in both rural and urban areas, effectively cutting off the vast majority of South Africans from places of economic opportunity. The chapter on the rural economy makes detailed proposals on how land reform can be unblocked and implemented in a collaborative manner, with clear roles for district municipalities, communities and farmers.
The chapter on transforming urban and rural spaces spells out why and how we can unravel the spatial patterns of apartheid that still plague us. There are parts of this country that still look as though they are still dominated by the Group Areas Act. Transforming human settlements is a large and complex agenda, requiring far-reaching policy changes. Most state investment goes into household services. Over time, the state should shift its role from a direct housing provider to a housing facilitator, developing public goods through investment in public transport, economic and social infrastructure and quality public spaces.
The plan addresses how we can transform where people live; how we can break the pattern of government building soulless little boxes and, instead, facilitate the development of communities. We want to link where people sleep, pray and play with where they work. We want to develop communities, understanding that the quality of life for many is undermined by the fact that they must travel great distances to get to and from work.
Our proposals on urban areas include developing a more coherent and inclusive approach to land. All municipalities should be encouraged to formulate specific land policies, showing how vacant and underused land will be developed and managed to achieve wider socioeconomic objectives. Our plans include radically revising the housing finance regime by shifting funding away from building single houses to supporting the development of a wide variety of housing types with different tenure arrangements, including affordable rental and social housing. They include the strengthening of the link between public transport and land use management with the introduction of incentives and regulations to support compact mixed-use developments. They also include enhancing the existing national programme for informal settlements by developing a range of tailored responses to their upgrade, including minimum health and safety standards.
We need strong and mature leadership, both in government and from communities, to achieve the unity and common purpose required to see the plan through. Leadership is about problem-solving. We need initiative. We need voice. We need to test ideas. We can and should all be leaders in our society. We can all implement the solutions that we have collectively identified. This requires us to change the way we approach challenges. It requires a paradigm shift. This is what we propose in the plan.
In coming up with the solutions, the commission has drawn strongly from definitions of development that focus on creating the conditions, the opportunities and the capabilities that enable people to lead the lives that they desire. Development is a process of raising the capabilities of all citizens, particularly those who were previously disadvantaged.
The development of capabilities is critical to enable our youth to grasp the opportunities that we develop. Education and skills development are critical capabilities, but there are others, too. Better public transport, a well-designed social safety net, a healthy population, better located housing settlements and safer communities are critical to enable people to improve their own lives.
The plan therefore charts a new course. This new course is one where communities, in partnership with government, develop the capabilities to improve their own lives through education, employment, health care, transport, social security and safer communities. At the same time, we have to broaden the economic opportunities available to citizens. This requires faster economic growth, a more labour-absorbing economy, higher levels of investment, inclusive and integrated rural economies, and better located human settlements. While we build these capabilities for both individuals and for the country, we must do so mindful of the impact on our environment, which is an endowment we cannot destroy.
The shift from a delivery model to a capabilities one requires three complementary enablers. Firstly, it speaks of an active citizenry, where people are involved in their own development and in the development of their community.
The second enabler is a capable and effective state, able to understand when and where it needs to act, what its limitations are, and how to partner with other forces in society to achieve complex objectives. The third enabler is strong and mature leadership from all institutions in society.
An active citizenry, working in partnership with government, business and civil society is critical to this new development paradigm. While the state can build schools, we need communities to work with the schools to ensure that these schools function properly and that the children study hard. Our paradigm becomes one where communities are active in their own development.
The challenge we face in our education sector illustrates this point well. There is universal acknowledgement that our education system fails the poor. Members may have seen the short animated story that the commission produced about a young girl named Thandi - it is available on YouTube - to illustrate the impact of circumstances on the life of a young school- leaver. Our plan is about improving the life chances of people like Thandi. This covers improving the education system to making sure that more school- leavers get jobs. Achieving this requires a collective effort. We have to talk to one another and draw on the energy of those who are committed to finding solutions. And, yes, we will leave the naysayers behind.
We hope that the proposals in the plan will be taken in the spirit in which they were designed: an honest and open-handed attempt to tackle the deep- seated problems that bedevil our society.
This process has been a unique one. It was a bold and brave step by the President to appoint a commission of people from outside of government, South Africans who care deeply about their country, to help develop a national plan. He has shown remarkable confidence in our institutions of democracy to embark on such a process.
I would like to say to the President that we are still engaging with South Africans on the proposals in the plan. This is both a heartening and a humbling experience. It is heartening because so many of our fellow citizens share our broad approach, support the values of our Constitution and agree with the key priorities that we have outlined; humbling because we, the commission, know so little about so many of the issues. Our discussions have been hugely enriched by the considered and often detailed views of ordinary South Africans on how to solve some of our most critical challenges.
We look forward to engaging with Parliament and for Parliament to facilitate further engagement on the proposed plan. In June or perhaps July, we will take the refined document back to Cabinet for discussion and, hopefully, adoption.
The work of the National Planning Commission does not end this year. After the plan is presented to Cabinet in a few months' time, the commission will begin detailed work on perhaps two or four areas a year so that we can complete the detailed ...