Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel on Friday unveiled a Green Paper on national strategic planning that will be tabled in Parliament next week.
The former finance minister said, however, that the paper is essentially a discussion document ”that outlines the tasks of the national planning function, broadly defined”.
Only after further discussion will his office start setting up high-level planning structures that must thrash out the government’s long-term goals, or a so-called national plan.
”In other words, the Green Paper does not deal with these substantive issues of content.”
Manuel said the national plan will be the fruit of intense consultation between the National Planning Commission — which will group respected intellectuals, leaders and experts — and other institutions, including outside government.
”A National Planning Commission [NPC] comprising external commissioners who are experts in relevant fields would play a key role in developing this plan.
”The development of a national plan would require broader societal consultation and existing forums would be used for this purpose.”
The national plan would then be adopted by Cabinet.
Manuel said ultimately the NPC’s task would be to identify obstacles to policy implementation and to develop frameworks guiding regional planning and infrastructure investment.
”The national planning function will provide guidance on the allocation of resources and in the development of departmental, sectoral, provincial and municipal plans.”
He said he planned to commission research and release discussion documents on a range of issues like climate change, demographics and food security that would need to be taken into account as the government develops long-term plans
Responding to a question, Manuel said it was far too early to speculate about who would sit on the NPC.
”We have not considered a list of names and faces for the commission. We have still to get round to that,” he said.
According to the Green Paper, the minister for national planning, Manuel, ”will be the link between government and the commission”.
It says that the ministerial committee on planning will be set up by the president ”to provide collective input into planning”.
It will be coordinated and chaired by Manuel, who will ”feed the work ” of the NPC into government and Cabinet through this ministerial committee.
The Green Paper will be presented to Parliament on Tuesday. — Sapa