All the contributions made during the National Planning Commission’s (NPC) 72-hour online discussion will contribute to the country’s vision and planning, NPC chairperson Trevor Manuel said on Saturday.
“Rest assured that we will take each and every contribution seriously,” he said in a statement.
When the discussion started on Wednesday, Manuel told journalists it was being dominated by young people and that employment was the main theme.
By the time it ended at midday on Saturday, 10 300 people had logged in — 40% of them young people — and there had been 8 700 posts, said NPC spokesperson Toivo Mohapi.
The online dialogue focused on a vision for the country in 2030 and was guided by nine problems the NPC identified in June.
These included citizenry, employment, education, crime, infrastructure and health.
Mohapi said information technology company IBM would put together a detailed report of all the comments made during the dialogue and this would form the basis of a plan which would be released in November.
All comments and posts would remain on the website for interested people to read, she said.
In the first three hours of the discussion, 1 889 logins and 1 393 posts were registered.
During the 72-hour online discussion, 25 NPC commissioners interacted with members of the public.
To cater for South Africans without internet connection, the NPC enlisted the help of the National Youth Development Agency, Love Life and government Thusong Centres.