President Jacob Zuma made the right noises
These are the questions President Jacob Zuma will answer in the National Assembly this afternoon.
• In view of the recent Cabinet lekgotla where the government’s programme of action, the Medium Term Strategic Framework, was reflected upon and firm decisions were taken on concrete action plans in order to take the Nine-Point Plan to a higher level, (a) what are the details of some of the decisions that were taken and (b) what do the specified action plans require from all identified sectors to take South Africa on a sustainable socio-economic trajectory?
• In light of the fact that there is already an inter-ministerial committee on State-owned entities, which has been chaired by the Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, since December 2014, how will the Presidential State-Owned Companies Co-ordinating Council interact with this body?
• With reference to the inter-ministerial committee on investment that has identified 40 projects across the clusters of government that will have a high-scale economic impact, (a) which of the projects will be implemented in the next two years and (b) how will communities benefit from the specified projects in the next two years?
• Whilst understanding that the spheres of government are separate, yet interrelated and interdependent in their roles and that these spheres are expected to work together in the spirit of co-operative governance, and that through the oversight work of Parliament the experience of committees on a number of occasions is that this conceptual and constitutional understanding is often not adhered to and the spirit of co-operative governance often lacking, (a) what additional reforms are being considered to improve effective governance of the State and (b) will these reforms include a greater role for the masses of our people who are often the recipients of poor service delivery because of the aforementioned?
• In light of the fact that a sovereign ratings downgrade is likely to occur in the coming months, what plan of action does the government have in place to avoid such an occurrence and to ensure that the poor are not adversely affected, that jobs are created and that investors still see South Africa as a safe, desirable investment destination?
• With reference to the 6th Summit of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development that took place in Kenya over the weekend of 27 to 28 August 2016, what (a) is the nature of increased Japanese investment in South Africa and (b) undertakings would these sectors and the government need to make for increased investment to be realised? – News24