Chairperson and hon members, there is an old saying that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. For many years our country has moved from one administrative bungle to another due to the government's poor planning. Where there was a semblance of departmental planning, government often worked in silos, without proper co-ordination between its various spheres and departments. We hope that the strategic roadmap for South Africa presented to us here today by the National Planning Commission Minister marks the end to poor departmental planning.
The UDM believes that this strategic plan provides enough detail on how we intend to commit present resources to long-term infrastructure development, such as South Africa's energy infrastructure needs, that is, the building of Eskom power stations. Furthermore, the National Planning Commission needs to take a long-term view of the effect of the capacity of our ports on economic growth.
We therefore support the broad strategic framework the commission has developed regarding the best way to allocate South Africa's scarce resources in pursuit of a common vision for our future. I thank you.