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SA: Jeff Radebe: Address by Minister in the Presidency for PME, on the occasion of the third Presidential logal government summit, Gallagher Estates, Midrand (06/04/2017)

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SA: Jeff Radebe: Address by Minister in the Presidency for PME, on the occasion of the third Presidential logal government summit, Gallagher Estates, Midrand (06/04/2017)

Minister in the Presidency for PME Jeff Radebe
Photo by GovtZA
Minister in the Presidency for PME Jeff Radebe

6th April 2017

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Thank you, Director of the Programme:

His Excellency, President Jacob Zuma

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My Cabinet Colleague, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Des van Rooyen

MEC for Human Settlements in Gauteng Province, Paul Mashatile

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Executive Mayor of the City of eThekwini, Cllr Zandile Gumede

Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Mayors and Councilors present here

Eminent Delegates from various organisations

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

 

I’m pleased to be part of a conference about the role of local government in advancing the goal of radical socio-economic transformation, guided by the National Development Plan Vision 2030.  

The transformation of municipal spaces is fundamental to improving the socio-economic conditions of South Africans, and in particular to improving the living conditions black people, who must still be fully liberated from Apartheid’s spatial injustices.

Spatial transformation is one of the core tasks of the developmental state that we are constructing to lead the ongoing building of a truly united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa; a South Africa in which all citizens will experience a better life, wherever they reside.

Successful developmental states are known to be guided by a long term plan that enjoys buy-in and support across all sectors of society. These plans are often called a ‘mobilising vision’. The National Development Plan (NDP) Vision 2030 is South Africa’s “mobilising vision” for the foreseeable future. This is South Africa’s overarching plan whose priorities are to tackle the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and gross inequalities.

Parliament and Cabinet adopted the National Development Plan Vision 2030 in 2012 as the first long-term national development plan for South Africa. The NDP recognizes the strategic importance of local government in ensuring the attainment of key aspects of our vision 2030.

The NDP enables us, across the spectrum of society, to take on the task of bringing about the complex changes in the social and economic structure of society, given our history of oppression, exploitation and dispossession. It outlines our compelling vision of a radically transformed society, and maps out the actions we need to take over the next decade and a half or so to get there.

While our government has significantly reduced extreme poverty – which was halved during the period 2001 to 2011- greater effort is needed to eradicate income poverty. This requires that we accelerate inclusive economic growth, as part of radical socio-economic transformation.

However, our economic growth has been declining and unemployment remains at unacceptably high levels, with the youth being most affected. This is our most pressing immediate challenge. The outcomes of this important conference must, among others, help us address this challenge with utmost urgency.

We need to understand and address the complex intersection of spatial, demographic and structural factors relating to provision of education, skills, infrastructure and investment, which continue to trap mainly black people in conditions of limited economic opportunities and poverty, on the outskirts of major economic hubs.

The changes that the state must implement have a long-term time-frame, and require planning and coordination to manage these complexities.

Currently, our planning across the three sphere of government is characterised by diffused and bureaucratic planning responsibilities, with a plethora of structures and legislation. This results in parallel and sometimes overlapping plans and initiatives that affect policy coherence and co-ordination, and undermine effective implementation.

The setting of focused priorities and performance indicators that reflect the major issues affecting the country, as articulated in the NDP, has not been optimal. Consequently, this has not assisted the allocation of the budget and investment in general.

These planning and institutional issues are currently being addressed by the Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation, with a view soon to put in place a framework within which we can coordinate our policies and strategies across all spheres, in order to better advance implementation of the NDP in an integrated manner.

The National Planning Commission, which President Zuma appointed in 2010 to compile the NDP, correctly recognised the need to institutionalise planning across the whole of government, to ensure that implementation of the NDP is properly sustained in order to be successful.

Recognising that planning happens at different levels, the focus is on improving co-ordination, problem-solving, and strategic leadership for various initiatives and programmes across all of government, and in broader society, to ensure that our efforts are cohesive and effective in achieving our common goals.

Institutionalising planning is thus key to building a capable and developmental State, a matter on which the NDP has a dedicated chapter.

Progressive strides to this end, include the following:

• The Creation of the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in 2014;

• The appointment of the second National Planning Commission in 2015;

•  The Medium-Term Strategic Framework and 9 Point plan to fast-track the implementation of the NDP;

•  Adopting the Back to Basics programme for local government;

•  Putting in place measures to support a number of State Owned Companies; and

•  Establishing Presidential Working Groups in various sectors to strengthen partnerships between government and social partners, aimed at shaping a common agenda and mobilising society to play its role towards our common goals.

The capability of our developmental state will be, and must be, measured by our ability to implement the NDP as a long-term vision and plan, in particular through strong, capable institutions that are able to effectively manage the integration of different components of the development strategy.  As such, local government, like other spheres of government, has a critical role to play in turning our vision and plan into a reality, as it relates to service delivery, municipal planning and spatial transformation.

The introduction of the Back to Basics programme by the Department of Cooperative Governance is a major milestone towards building a system of government that acknowledges the importance of institutions, and building the necessary capabilities in our government, to work towards our vision. The programme also recognizes that all municipalities are not equally up to the task of developmental local government, and that the only way to build the system is to ensure that we strengthen it.

As the DPME, we have also worked closely with the Department of Cooperative Governance to ensure that we effectively monitor our objectives for local government, as spelled out in (Outcome 9 of) the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), and to intervene when necessary, in order to meet our targets. 

The NDP confirms in Chapter 8 that addressing the spatial legacies of apartheid will require sustained intervention by all three spheres of government over an extended period of time.  The chapter also highlights some challenges around weak capabilities for spatial governance across the spheres of government.  The Integrated Urban Development Framework takes forward the framework for urban futures provided by the National Development Plan and highlights the levers available to achieve more inclusive towns and cities (socially, economically and spatially).

What is clear from both the NDP and the Integrated Urban Development Framework is that all spheres of government have an important role to play in achieving the objectives of the country.  Spatial policy allows us to integrate the interventions from various spheres and sectors in particular spaces in order to enhance the impact of our investment. And again, all three spheres of government are critical.  It is important to understand how the different components of the system should work together, and also bring in the energy and resources of other sectors of society.

As we strive to forge more effective ways of working together, we must be guided by the principle that national strategic planning evolves through intergovernmental cooperation, and is binding on all spheres and sectors.

The NDP also underscore the need for clarity of policy and clarity of the responsibilities of different role-players. If we are clear who is responsible for different aspects of the development process, then we know who must take accountability. More importantly, we know who to engage with in working together towards common objectives.

We have realized that responsibilities in government are not always sufficiently allocated. As we monitor our plans and reflect on our system of planning as developmental state, we must recognize where adjustments need to be made.

In this regard we are currently working on some adjustments to responsibility for ensuring we undertake spatial planning more optimally. In particular, there is already a three-way agreement between the Ministers of Rural Development and of Cooperative Governance and myself to reassign key functions in the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform to the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, and some to the Department of Cooperative Governance.

The reason for this shift is to ensure that we get better coherence between the strategic plans of government and the spatial plans and investment frameworks, as well as better support for land use management activities in municipalities. We hope that this will assist with some of the fragmentation in planning responsibilities.

The NDP recognizes that without deliberate and focused efforts to change the spatial configuration, public and private sector spending can exacerbate existing spatial divisions and reinforce economic exclusion. To this end, in line with chapter 8 of the NDP and the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act, the DPME is currently undertaking work on the development of the National Spatial Development Framework to link the vision of the NDP to government’s spatial transformation agenda. This will elevate the importance of a coherent spatial logic in other development policy instruments, and strengthen leadership of the spatial transformation of the country.

The National Spatial Development Framework is not intended to replace or trump Municipal Spatial Development Frameworks. The intention is rather to ensure that national level policies with a spatial impact are internally consistent and coherent, and that policy instruments across government support the overall spatial transformation agenda.

The Back to Basics (B2B) programme of action has helped greatly in harnessing and refocusing our attention on:

  • Putting people first
  • Ensuring that we deliver basic services to all
  • Improving financial management
  • Building our institutional capabilities

Through continued efforts to monitor progress across the various plans in government, and put in place interventions to address weaknesses, we are able to identify delivery bottlenecks, where policy seems to be an obstacle to our objectives, and where there are other weaknesses that need to be addressed.

A coherent system of planning, monitoring and evaluation assists us to set the direction for the country, and to truly stay our course. It also ensures that our policy priorities are appropriate to achieve a better life for all South Africans.

Building a developmental state is a journey. I hope that the deliberations here today will help us in working towards a better South Africa.

It is our future – Make it work.

I thank you.

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