Hon Chairperson, hon members and the Minister in the Presidency, hon Trevor Manuel, the tabling of the diagnostic overview must be welcomed, as it seeks to address the main challenges confronting our democratic Republic, those which we at this point in time are debating in our respective Budget Votes. Critically it examines the vexed question of the underlying causes of the main and contradictory challenges facing the nation.
Its approach is typically and correctly a research methodological approach, scientifically extrapolating the base of the contradictions and not the superstructure. It emphasises causes and effects in its approach, and such an overview would of necessity have multiple dimensions. It deals with the essence of the contradiction and not the form. Therefore, its approach is dialectical.
Certainly, research institutions, both nationally and internationally, will study this with keen interest, for its approach is equally applicable in many countries on our continent. Importantly, it states, and I quote:
If South Africa is able to reach broad consensus on its principal national challenges, it will stand a better chance of coming up with sensible and achievable solutions.
This House would do well to understand the statement, for it is equally applicable here in the House.
The focus of the diagnostic overview locks onto the economy, human conditions, material conditions, nation-building and institutions of governance. The depth of the commission's work is impressive and, equally, the approach suggests that the commission has taken a grounded research methodological approach in producing its findings.
This is the only manner by which we can objectively address the challenges we face. Certainly, the scope of stakeholder inputs alone suggests a very inclusive approach has been adopted, drawing up experiential learning and academic reports.
I quote from the foreword of the report:
Given its advisory role, the commission needs to convince the country and Cabinet of its arguments through evidence, well-considered proposals, and ideas that are tested with the public and experts. The mandate of the commission allows it to be objective and, where necessary, critical. These criticisms are made with an understanding of our historical context and an acknowledgement of our achievements so far; driven by a commitment to do better, to fix what is wrong and to deliver a better life for all.
Let me say a few words about strategic planning management, a subject that is very relevant in the context of the Presidency. Strategic planning management and leadership are concerned with the overall effectiveness and choice of direction of the state within a dynamic, complex and ambiguous environment. Capabilities that have to be further developed and strengthened include, among others, strategic thinking, emotional intelligence and transformational leadership.
Strategic planning management is primarily concerned with strategic planning, which means developing strategies to balance the resources, capabilities, values and objectives of the government with its external environment.
For that matter, strategic leadership at the level of the Presidency means leading the entire government, and more broadly, the state, something which requires an understanding of the entire government and state, domestic and global environment within which the Presidency has to operate. This understanding will assist in creating strategic change and positioning the developmental state and democratic government within the domestic and global environment with a view to ensuring both the short-term stability and the long-term viability.
While the strategic planning management and leadership relate to management of the strategic decision-making process, the success of the government will be determined on the basis of the effectiveness and efficiency of its strategic managers. For this reason, the Presidency has to develop a strategic management capacity that will ensure that the whole bureaucracy functions properly.
Without doubt the strategic capacity and capability of the government requires a strong capacity for formulating and co-ordinating policy in the strategic centre of the government, that being the Presidency. In fact, the strengthening of strategic management at the centre should be understood within the context of developing the strategic capacity of the government, which all levels of the government require to intervene in all issues, especially service delivery. Because service delivery primarily occurs at the level of provincial and local government, it becomes critically important for the centre to ensure that strong strategic capacity is also developed at these levels of the government.
The strategic planning management of the government must be understood within the context of transforming the state and developing institutional capacity for a developmental state. A strong centre remains an important characteristic of the developmental state, something it requires to produce decisions that are well informed, with the costs and benefits of alternative policy options identified, and responses to problems co- ordinated.
Let me return to the diagnostic overview. The outputs of the workshops and some of the papers produced have been put on the National Planning Commission website for comment, further strengthening the overview, to which the Minister has already alluded. The root causes of challenges are central to analysis, which in itself throws up the additional linkages connecting them and their being critical factors that need to be studied.
For the ANC, what is critical is to establish whether the findings in the diagnostic overview support its policy thrust in addressing the challenges we have in building a national democratic society. The diagnostic overview supports the ANC's long held and articulated view - even if some amongst us may want to continuously contest it - that since 1994 we have made substantive and deep-seated progress towards a more just and inclusive society.
Amongst the ANC's five priorities the overview reflects substantive progress, as well as access to basic services. This confirms our view that we have been able to change the lives of the nation to a qualitatively better position, although with much more still needing to be done. In fact, the report reflects remarkable progress in health, education, access to water and formal housing, and the development of a more representative nation. In this respect, progress in addressing the national question has taken a huge, qualitative leap forward.
Again, the diagnostic overview supports the correctness of the 2011 programme of the ANC of economic transformation as our national project and nation-building programme. The key to this is the creation of decent work and overall vastly improving employment levels. Our deep concern about the economic situation of the masses of our people is reflected in this sentence in the overview: "Economic performance has been mixed".
Eliminating poverty and reducing inequality are key objectives of both the ANC and the government. Again, the overview speaks of the deep-seated economic struggles of the majority of our people and the need to create jobs for more people and to improve the quality of education, especially for poor black children.
Particular areas bring new information, one of which is new evidence on whether we experienced jobless growth in the mid 1990s and, secondly, the description of the nature of the problems around education.
Certainly, in the ANC's strategy and tactics adopted at the 52nd national conference in 2007, it identified key characteristics that underpinned a developmental state. One of these was state organisational capacity in ensuring that its structures and systems facilitated the realisation of a set agenda.
Issues of macro-organisation of the state, which include permutations among policy and implementation organs with each sphere, allocation of responsibilities across the spheres, effective intergovernmental relations and the stability of the management systems, are all matters that the ANC government is currently seized with. This is emphasised in the Diagnostic Overview. With our responsibility for oversight as parliamentarians, this becomes critical in the period that lies ahead of us.
In addition, the diagnostic overview is also concerned with other defined attributes of the developmental state in technical capacity and ability to translate broad objectives into programmes and projects to ensure their implementation. Amongst other things, this depends on the proper training, orientation and leadership of the Public Service, and on acquiring and retaining skilled personnel.
There is much similarity between our thinking as the ANC and that of the diagnostic overview. As the ANC, we welcome this absolutely critical and strategic intervention examining the underlying causes of our objective conditions and presenting researched evidence regarding how we should tackle these going forward. The ANC do not celebrate the challenges identified by the commission; we take them seriously. They represent what we as the ANC spoke about many years ago, when we indicated that the challenges facing our country were deep-rooted.
We would like to make a firm commitment to the commission, the Cabinet and the entire country that we will always march ahead with our people to address the challenges, because we know their origins. We hope that all of us in this House will commit ourselves to working hand in hand with the commission regarding what it continues to recommend in order to be able to respond to these challenges, because that will be in our best interests, as well as those of generations to come. I thank you. [Applause.]