On 18 January, government invited nominations for people to serve on the National Planning Commission. The response has been simply overwhelming; with 1279 applications received by the closing date of 10 February. More critically, the quality of the nominees is exceptional, with a myriad of experts in various fields nominated to serve on the Commission.
The nomination process is reflective of two factors. Firstly, South Africa possesses a remarkable array of talent in fields as diverse as space science to traditional medicine, engineering to medicine. Secondly, there is an almost universal commitment amongst people to serve their country in some way or another, to help shape their country''s destination, to make South Africa a better place.
We wish to thank all the individuals and organisations for taking the time to nominate people as well as all the nominees themselves. The response to the nomination process has given us a huge boost as it underlines the importance that South Africans give to the development of a high quality long term vision and plan for the country.
The process presently underway is that the nominees are being categorized according to field of expertise, though many fall into more than one category. Included in the categories are engineering, town planning, demographic change, climate change, energy, water etc. We pledge to select the best possible people from each of these categories.
Given the overwhelming number of nominees, the process of categorization of the nominations is taking slightly longer than anticipated. We still hope that the President will be able to announce the 20 commissioners by the end of March.
"We want to assure all nominees that we will endeavor to utilise the skills and expertise of many of the nominees, through the work of the commission", said Minister Trevor Manuel.