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National Development Plan 2030

The National Planning Commission Chairperson Minister Trevor Manuel, Deputy Chair Cyril Ramaphosa and NPC commissioners handed over the National Development Plan [PDF] to President Zuma and Deputy President Motlanthe on 11 November 2011. This is a summary of what the plan entails.

South Africa can eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030. It will require change, hard work, leadership and unity. Our goal is to improve the life chances of all South Africans, but particularly those young people who presently live in poverty.

The plan asks for a major change in how we go about our lives. In the past, we expected government to do things for us. What South Africa needs is for all of us to be active citizens and to work together – government, business, communities – so that people have what they need to live the lives they would like.

A government that works well doesn’t just deliver more houses. It does more than that. It makes it possible for people to build or buy their own houses. This can be through earnings from work, savings, borrowing from the bank, family networks or government subsidies. Government can build schools, but it can’t make children go to school and study hard. It needs parents and teachers to do that. Getting this right is much more difficult than building houses or schools. This means we have to look at things differently, and behave differently.

The plan helps us to chart a new course. It focuses on putting in place the things that people need to grasp opportunities such as education and public transport and to broaden the opportunities through economic growth and the availability of jobs. Everything in the plan is aimed at reducing poverty and inequality.

Our view is that government should shift the balance of spending towards programmes that help people improve their own lives and those of their children and the communities they live in.

South Africa can become the country we want it to become. It is possible to get rid of poverty and reduce inequality in 20 years. We have the people, the goodwill, the skills, the resources – and now, a plan.

The National Development Plan 2030 in a nutshell

Create jobs

Create 11 million more jobs by 2030:
- Expand the public works programme
- Lower the cost of doing business and costs for households
- Help match unemployed workers to jobs
- Provide tax subsidy to businesses to reduce cost of hiring young people
- Help employers and unions agree on starting salaries
- Make it possible for very skilled immigrants to work in South Africa
- Make sure that probationary periods are managed properly
- Simplify dismissal procedures for performance or misconduct
- Take managers earning above R300 000 out of the CCMA process
- Reward the setting up of new businesses, including partnering with companies
- Increase value for money for tourists by selling regional packages that meet all pocket sizes. Consider a single visa for SADC visitors
- Deal with confusion over policies to do with transport, water, energy, labour and communications

Expand infrastructure

Invest in a new heavy-haul rail corridor to the Waterberg coal field and upgrade the central basin coal network
Enable exploratory drilling to see whether there are viable coal seam and shale gas reserves, while investigations continue to make sure that operations do not damage the environment
Move Eskom’s system operator, planning, power procurement, power purchasing and power contracting functions to the independent system and market operator
Closely regulate the electricity maintenance plans of large cities
Set up an investment programme for water resource development, bulk water supply and wastewater management this year, with reviews every five years
Fix and build transport links, in these key areas:
Upgrade the Durban-Gauteng freight corridor and build a new port at the old Durban airport site
Expand the coal, iron ore and manganese lines. Build the N2 road through the Eastern Cape
Upgrade the Sishen to Saldanha iron ore line and expand capacity on the manganese line (including port capacity)
Improve and cut the cost of internet broadband by changing the regulatory framework

Transition to a low-carbon economy

Speed up and expand renewable energy and waste recycling, and ensure buildings meet energy-efficient standards
Set a target of 5 million solar water heaters by 2030
Introduce a carbon tax
Scale up investments and research and development for new technologies

Transform urban and rural spaces

Stop building houses on poorly located land and shift more resources to upgrading informal settlements, provided that they are in areas close to jobs
Improve public transport
Give businesses incentives to move jobs to townships
Fix the gap in the housing market by combining what banks have to offer with subsidies as well as employer housing schemes
Give communal farmers, especially women, security of tenure
Put money into irrigation in Makatini Flats and Umzimvubu River Basin

Education and training

Develop a nutrition programme for pregnant women and young children, to be piloted by the Department of Health for two years
Make sure all children have two years of pre-school
Get rid of union and political interference in appointments and appoint only qualified people
Increase teacher training output by expanding “Funza Lushaka” to attract learners into teaching, especially those with good passes in maths, science and languages
Regularly test teachers in the subjects they teach to determine level of knowledge and competence. Link teacher pay to learner performance improvements
Good schools should not be burdened with the paperwork that poor performing schools have to do to improve. Schools performing very poorly should receive the closest attention
Change the process of appointment of principals and set minimum qualifications
Gradually give principals more powers to run schools, including financial management, procurement of textbooks and other educational material, as well as hiring and firing educators
Increase the number of university graduates and the number of people doing their doctorates
Build two new universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape
Build a new medical school in Limpopo and a number of new academic hospitals
Consider extending the length of first degrees to four years on a voluntary basis
Provide full funding assistance covering tuition, books, accommodation and living allowance (in the form of loans and bursaries) to deserving students
Grant seven-year work permits to all foreigners who graduate from a registered South African university

Provide quality healthcare

Broaden coverage of antiretroviral treatment to all HIV-positive people
Speed up training of community specialists in medicine, surgery including anaesthetics, obstetrics, paediatrics and psychiatry
Recruit, train and deploy between 700 000 and 1.3 million community health workers to implement community-based health care
Set minimum qualifications for hospital managers and ensure that all managers have the necessary qualifications
Implement national health insurance in a phased manner
Promote active lifestyles and balanced diets, control alcohol abuse and health awareness to reduce non-communicable diseases

Build a capable state

Fix the relationship between political parties and government officials
Make the public service a career of choice
Improve relations between national, provincial and local government
Boost state-owned enterprises to help build the country
Professionalise the police and criminal justice system

Fight corruption

Centralise the awarding of large tenders or tenders that go for a long time
Take political and legal steps to stop political interference in agencies fighting corruption
Set up dedicated prosecution teams, specialist courts and judges
Make it illegal for civil servants to run or benefit directly from certain types of business activity

Transformation and unity

The Bill of Responsibility, developed by the Department of Basic Education and others, should be popularised and used as a pledge by all South Africans to live the values of the Constitution
Encourage all South Africans to learn at least one African language
Employment equity and other redress measures should continue and be made more effective

What will the National Planning Commission do next year and beyond?

This is a draft plan. We also want people to tell us their views. Everyone must participate. It must belong to all of us. After we have had everyone's feedback, the President, on behalf of the country, can adopt it. The commission was appointed by the President for five years, from May 2010 to May 2015. In the next three months we will consult as many people as possible to improve the plan. The time we have left after that we will use to make sure that the plan is turned into a reality.

"A government that works well doesn't just deliver more houses. It does more than that. It makes it possible for people to build or buy their own houses. "

For more information

National Development Plan 2030 Summary [PDF]
National Development Plan 2030 (full version) [PDF]
Vision statement
Diagnostic