In responding to the debate on the Presidency’s budget vote yesterday, President Jacob Zuma told members of Parliament that the government had adopted the National Development Plan (NDP) in 2012 as the socio-economic development blueprint to provide a road map for further work to build a better South Africa.
Addressing himself to the Inkatha Freedom Party, one of the few opposition parties in the House at the time, “Honourable Shenge (Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s clan name), the NDP is definitely being implemented by all government departments.” Furthermore, the goals and targets of the NDP have been integrated into government’s Medium Term Strategic Framework for the electoral period 2014 to 2019.
Mr Zuma said each government department has a programme of action that is derived from the NDP. “We need to improve the manner in which we communicate the implementation of the programme of action and ensure that our communication clearly links the programmes to the NDP more explicitly,” Mr Zuma explained.
During his response to the Presidency’s budget, Prince Buthelezi had asked for an explanation of radical socio-economic transformation, among other things. In response, President Zuma said it was a decision of the 53th national conference of the ANC, which took place in Mangaung in 2012 and discussed the theme of unity in action towards socio-economic freedom. A key resolution of that conference, Mr Zuma said, was that the second phase of the transition from apartheid colonialism to a national democratic Society “would be characterised by more radical policies and decisive action to effect socio-economic and continued democratic transformation”.
At that conference, the ANC identified economic growth, accelerated radical socio-economic transformation, land reform and redistribution, funding higher education, fighting crime and corruption as well as building the capacity of the state as the key priorities in the current year, “which automatically makes them key priorities of government,” said Mr Zuma.
Addressing concerns raised by Prince Buthelezi about perceived weaknesses in the Anti-Corruption Inter-Ministerial Committee and law enforcement agencies, Mr Zuma said steps are being taken to to strengthen the Committee. He said they also noted Mr Nelson Godi’s concerns on the financial management challenges in government departments. “We will continue to monitor these shortcomings at the level of Cabinet to find solutions,” he said.
Mr Zuma thanked Parliament for the successful departmental Budget Vote debates, which concluded with the Presidency Budget Vote debate. “Work will now continue towards the goal of building a better South Africa and a better life for our people,” he concluded.
Mava Lukani
2 June 2017
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