Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, His Excellency President Zuma, the hon Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, the National Planning Commission held its inaugural meeting on Monday and Tuesday this week, as the President has already shared with us.
It has taken us a long time to get to this point, a process that started with our appointment as Ministers last May. In my first Budget Vote speech last year, I outlined the need for a planning commission, what a planning commission could do, what role it could play in the policy arena and how it could contribute towards both better planning and greater coherence in government.
In August, we brought to this House a draft Green Paper on National Strategic Planning. Following an extensive debate - it should have been shorter, but the hon Trollip participated - and public consultation process, we released a revised Green Paper in January this year.
Hon Speaker, through this process, we have arrived at a consensus on the nature and type of planning commission we seek, on the role of the commission, on the type of commissioners and, broadly, on the areas that the planning commission would cover. Allow me to summarise what we have agreed to.
We have established a National Planning Commission, in the first instance, to attempt to produce a unifying vision and strategic plan for the country that has broad buy-in across all sectors of society and yet retains the ability to confront the critical trade-offs and challenges we face over the next 20 years. The work of the Planning Commission is meant to sharpen the focus of government, to use a long-term lens to obtain greater policy coherence in government, to independently and critically appraise our policies and conduct in-depth research on how best we can achieve our objectives.
We have chosen a commission of external commissioners, comprising, largely, experts tasked with advising government on issues relating to the long-term development trajectory of the country.
In January this year, President Zuma invited the public to nominate people to the National Planning Commission. We received an overwhelming response with 1 280 nominees. The calibre of the people nominated was exceptionally high. Clearly, the opportunity to participate in so great a calling saw the nomination of some of our country's best minds. Besides the fact that there are hundreds of very skilled and experienced South Africans, the nomination process also showed the willingness of these smart and skilled South Africans to play a role in shaping our collective future. I would like to thank every person who allowed him- or herself to be nominated. The sheer scale and quality presented the President with the daunting challenge of selecting just a few.
Mr Speaker, I do hope that we can still make a call on the skills and acumen of those who were nominated but not appointed to the National Planning Commission to play a role as we call on their skills.
After careful consideration of the list of nominees and the expertise required on the commission, the President announced the names of 25 commissioners on 30 April 2010. Amongst the 25 is Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, who has been appointed as deputy chairperson, and who brings knowledge and experience to the commission that has helped shape the trade union movement, our Constitution, this Parliament, the business sector and NGOs.
Now, I know that there is some strange behaviour among some journalists. They keep asking why there are so few this, or so many that. It's a strange question indeed. I'm reminded by their behaviour of what happened in July 1991 when the ANC held its first conference inside the country. Newspapers would publish a kind of league table: "Arnold Stofile, Xhosa, noncommunist", made the narrow national list. [Laughter.] "Jeff Radebe, Zulu, definitely a communist". [Laughter.] And this is how they carried on, and then they got to Pallo Jordan and said, "ons weet nie". [we don't know.] [Laughter.] So, I just want to plead that we move beyond such perverse behaviour. I'm glad that the entire commission thinks of that kind of behaviour by journalists as completely perverse and voyeuristic.
The participation of commissioners and the quality of discussions at our first meeting this week confirmed unequivocally that we not only have amongst the nation's top experts in a variety of disciplines, but that we also have a single team of highly motivated people of the highest integrity who want to operate together as a single commission, regardless of who nominated them. All share a common commitment to seeing South Africa become a better place in the future, a country that we will increasingly be proud of as a place where we want our children to live and thrive.
In welcoming the commissioners yesterday, the President pledged the full support of Cabinet and the Presidency for the work of the commission, as he did again this afternoon. I'd like to lift some of the issues that he raised there. He said, firstly, that the mandate of the commission needs "to take a broad, crosscutting, independent and critical view of South Africa, to help define the South Africa we seek to achieve in 20 years' time and to map out a path to achieve those objectives".
Secondly, he said that "the National Planning Commission will revitalise the work of government. By drawing on the best available expertise, the commission will be able to identify and confront challenges head-on." In other words, we are not looking at a commission that must be apologetic to government or that must try to be loved by government. We are looking at a commission that is going to deal with issues very frankly: not seeking favours from government, he said, but seeking to help this country and its people.
He said, thirdly, that "Government has often taken a sectoral and short- term view that has hampered development. Taking a long-term and independent view will add impetus, focus and coherence to our work." And, we believe, that it is better done by the compatriot South Africans from the intelligentsia who are not going to be guessing or shouting slogans, but who are going to be saying that this is how it should be done scientifically, and therefore help government to do things differently.
Fourthly, he said, "This will no doubt lead to an improved performance in government. By involving wider society in its work, it will rally the nation around a common vision."
Then the President said that the establishment of the National Planning Commission "is our promise to the people of South Africa that we are building a state that will grow the economy, reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of our citizens".
One of the challenges, colleagues, that you are faced with, he said, is that South Africa is divided into two: extreme poverty on one side and extreme richness on the other. The gap is too big. How do you bring this together? How do you harmonise? If it remains where it is, we will not be free of problems. Problems will continue, he said.
He said, finally, in that regard that he wanted to state that the National Planning Commission had the full support of the executive. He said that the National Planning Commission must do things properly, without fear or favour. He said: We will support you on that, even if you disagree with government, because we will know that you are not doing it from any subjective point of view.
I think that as the National Planning Commission we are immensely honoured, humbled and privileged to be given such a broad mandate and such strong encouragement at the point where we start our work.
I also want to say this afternoon, Mr Speaker, that it is a measure of brave and bold leadership to give such an enthusiastic mandate to a grouping outside of Cabinet. So, Mr President, on behalf of the entire National Planning Commission, I have the task of thanking you for that support. It will make a difference. We know that the NPC will drive change, and sometimes we will be quite unloved by our colleagues in Cabinet, but that is part of what the commissioners accept as their remit.
The commissioners were at one in saying that Parliament should play a role in facilitating dialogue both on the vision and on the national plan. Drawing on the positive role played by Parliament in getting consensus around the Green Paper, we are of the view that Parliament is suitably placed to bring together diverse views from all walks of society to enrich the work of the commission and of the government in general. I will engage with you, Mr Speaker, and with the Chairperson of the NCOP to explore ways of facilitating this process on a permanent basis.
Our intention, as the commission, is to produce a draft vision and a national plan for Cabinet within 18 months, hon De Zille, I mean, De Lille. Sorry, dyslexia gets me sometimes. [Laughter.] That is the first objective that I have in my strategic plan: to produce a draft vision and a national plan for Cabinet within 18 months. We will also produce reports on crosscutting issues that have an impact on our long-term development. We will also respond to specific requests from Cabinet from time to time.
At an administrative level, we are in the process of developing the capacity to support the work of the commission. We are building a small, professional and capable secretariat that will add value to both the work of the commission and to the Office of the Presidency in general.
We should remind ourselves that in trying to do better, in working differently, we have two new Ministers in the Presidency. My colleague Minister Chabane, who is tasked with Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, has an enormous task. I think that the 15 minutes given to him this afternoon is quite inadequate. Parliament must engage with the issues. And then there is me. At both the ministerial level and at the level of the secretariat, we are working closely with the Ministry and Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation. Our work is interconnected in several respects.
We will support their work in shaping priorities, in developing indicators and in producing evidence of what is working and what is not working and, similarly, they will support our work through the role that they play in developing outcomes, performance agreements and delivery agreements.
In conclusion, hon Speaker, I would like to thank both the President and the Deputy President for the support that they have given us in our work over the past year. We know that once we get into the nuts and bolts of our work, we will call on their support and inspiration more frequently. I also wish to thank the staff in the Ministry and in the Presidency for the hard work that they do in making our country a better place. Thank you very much. [Applause.]