A Green Paper on National Strategic Planning and a policy document on Performance Monitoring and Evaluation would be placed before Parliament on Tuesday, Minister in the Presidency for National Planning Trevor Manuel and Minister in the Presidency for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Minister Collins Chabane said on Friday.

Manuel told a media briefing in Pretoria that government required a longer-term perspective to enhance policy coherence and to help guide shorter-term policy trade-offs.

This would help to improve government's overall effectiveness and provide a framework for mutually reinforcing action by government and social partners.

Under Manuel's leadership, the planning unit would develop a long-term vision for South Africa, beyond 2025, to enable the country to understand what it wants to aspire to and what it would need to do to reach those aspirations.

A National Planning Commission, which would consist of about 20 external experts in a number of relevant fields, would help in compiling the long-term plan.

The Minister noted that it had not yet considered a "list of names and faces" to form the commission, saying that the details of the commission would be decided on in "the fullness of time".

However, he said that the commission would be made up of persons with divergent views.

Manuel noted that the Ministry had taken the manifestos of all the different political parties and paid attention to the common ground in each of these to decide what the longer-term plan should focus on.

He added that this common ground in the various manifestos was "extensive" in South Africa.

Further, he noted that outside of the planning commission, the Ministry would have to make use of the services of agencies such as the Industrial Development Corporation, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, as well as research from universities, to make inputs into the plan.

Once completed, Cabinet would have to adopt the plan as a government plan. If adopted, it would be binding, said Presidency Policy Unit head Joel Netshitenze.

Meanwhile, Chabane noted that the establishment of the Ministry of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation was a clear demonstration of commitment by government to ensure that it had an outcomes-based performance that would make a "meaningful impact" on the lives of citizens.

"We need to understand and accept why we have too often not met our objectives in delivering quality services. The reasons vary from, among others, [a] lack of political will, inadequate leadership, management weaknesses, inappropriate institutional design and misaligned decision rights. The absence of a strong performance culture with effective rewards and sanctions has also played a part," Chabane stated.

The Ministry had identified education, health, safety, economic growth with the creation of decent jobs and rural developments as its focus areas.

A Minister, groups of Ministers, or clusters of Ministers and members of executive councils (MECs) would receive a letter from the President , which would outline the outcomes and the measures the Ministry would use to assess the performance of these persons.

A focused meeting between the President and the sector political leadership would take place every six months to assess the progress made.

The Minister emphasised that the Ministry's role would not be to persecute Ministers or MECs who might not be performing as well as they should be in their tasks, but rather to reform the way in which government delivered on its services.

"This will involve facilitating a process through which the Cabinet and the other spheres of government agree on outcome and output targets," he noted.

Where necessary, the Ministry would make an intervention to try to improve the performance. The President would determine what would happen if, after consistent attention, the performance remains inadequate, stated the Ministry.

Meanwhile, Netshitenze explained that the Green Paper on National Strategic Planning would be subject to public hearings after being entered into the Parliamentary system.

The policy document on Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, entitled ‘Improving Government Performance: Our Approach', would, however, after entering the Parliamentary system, be debated and then implemented.