President Thabo Mbeki will, in his State of the Nation speech on Friday, outline decisions taken at last week's Cabinet lekgotla, on policy priorities, actions and projects for 2006, spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said in a statement this weekend.

Cabinet held its first ordinary meeting of the year on Wednesday, which was followed by a Cabinet lekgotla from Wednesday to Friday.

The lekgotla was attended by Cabinet members, Deputy Ministers, Premiers, national and provincial Director Generals, advisers in the Presidency and, for the first time, top office-bearers of the South African Local Government Association, including the body's CEO.

The decision to extend participation in national Cabinet lekgotla to representatives of local government was a response to the need to strengthen integration across all spheres of government, the statement said.

The Cabinet lekgotla reviewed the implementation of the government's 2005 Programme of Action and decided on policy actions and projects to be undertaken during 2006.

Among other things, the ordinary Cabinet meeting approved a Framework for Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly-Financed Research, and agreed on consultative processes which will lead to legislation on this matter.

It approved an electricity-generation investment plan, including the split in this regard between Eskom and independent power producers.

The plan aims to help inform decisions of the private sector, as a number of private companies have expressed an interest in taking part in this programme.

The investment plan will fit into government's 20-year plan to develop a number of oil-, gas-, hydro- and coal-powered stations, which would add some 12 000 MW to the country's generation capacity, with Eskom responsible for supplying 70% of this and independent power producers the remaining 20%.

The meeting also approved the setting up of a joint commission to ensure the implementation of an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding between South Africa and Mozambique on the power-development initiatives in Northern Mozambique.

The meeting also approved accession by South Africa to the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management.

Further, Cabinet agreed that March 1, 2006, voting day in the local government elections, should be declared a national holiday.

This will enable voters to freely exercise their right to take part in the elections, Netshitenzhe said.