NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN 2030

 
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN SUMMARY

The plan helps us to chart a new course. It focuses on putting in place the things that people need to grasp opportunities such as education and public transport and to broaden the opportunities through economic growth and the availability of jobs. Everything in the plan is aimed at reducing poverty and inequality.

Our view is that government should shift the balance of spending towards programmes that help people improve their own lives and those of their children and the communities they live in.

South Africa can become the country we want it to become. It is possible to get rid of poverty and reduce inequality in 20 years. We have the people, the goodwill, the skills, the resources – and now, a plan.

EXPAND INFRASTRUCTURE

• Invest in a new heavy-haul rail corridor to the Waterberg coal field and upgrade the central basin coal network
• Enable exploratory drilling to see whether there are viable coal seam and shale gas reserves, while investigations continue to make sure that operations do not damage the environment
• Move Eskom’s system operator, planning, power procurement, power purchasing and power contracting functions to the independent system and market operator
• Closely regulate the electricity maintenance plans of large cities
• Set up an investment programme for water resource development, bulk water supply and wastewater management this year, with reviews every five years
• Fix and build transport links, in these key areas:
• Upgrade the Durban-Gauteng freight corridor and build a new port at the old Durban airport site
• Expand the coal, iron ore and manganese lines. Build the N2 road through the Eastern Cape
• Upgrade the Sishen to Saldanha iron ore line and expand capacity on the manganese line (including port capacity)
• Improve and cut the cost of internet broadband by changing the regulatory framework

CREATE JOBS

• Create 11 million more jobs by 2030:
• Expand the public works programme
• Lower the cost of doing business and costs for households
• Help match unemployed workers to jobs
• Provide tax subsidy to businesses to reduce cost of hiring young people
• Help employers and unions agree on starting salaries
• Make it possible for very skilled immigrants to work in South Africa
• Make sure that probationary periods are managed properly
• Simplify dismissal procedures for performance or misconduct
• Take managers earning above R300 000 out of the CCMA process
• Reward the setting up of new businesses, including partnering with companies
• Increase value for money for tourists by selling regional packages that meet all pocket sizes. Consider a single visa for SADC visitors
• Deal with confusion over policies to do with transport, water, energy, labour and communications

TRANSITION TO LOW CARBON ECONOMY

• Speed up and expand renewable energy and waste recycling, and ensure buildings meet energy-efficient standards
• Set a target of 5 million solar water heaters by 2030
• Introduce a carbon tax
• Scale up investments and R&D for new technologies

TRANSFORM URBAN SPACES

• Stop building houses on poorly located land and shift more resources to upgrading informal settlements, provided that they are in areas close to jobs
• Improve public transport
• Give businesses incentives to move jobs to townships
• Fix the gap in the housing market by combining what banks have to offer with subsidies as well as employer housing schemes
• Give communal farmers, especially women, security of tenure
• Put money into irrigation in Makatini Flats and Umzimvubu River Basin

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

• Develop a nutrition programme for pregnant women and young children, to be piloted by the Department of Health for two years
• Make sure all children have two years of pre-school
• Get rid of union and political interference in appointments and appoint only qualified people
• Increase teacher training output by expanding “Funza Lushaka” to attract learners into teaching, especially those with good passes in maths, science and languages
• Regularly test teachers in the subjects they teach to determine level of knowledge and competence. Link teacher pay to learner performance improvements
• Good schools should not be burdened with the paperwork that poor performing schools have to do to improve. Schools performing very poorly should receive the closest attention
• Change the process of appointment of principals and set minimum qualifications
• Gradually give principals more powers to run schools, including financial management, procurement of textbooks and other educational material, as well as hiring and firing educators
• Increase the number of university graduates and the number of people doing their doctorates
• Build two new universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape
• Build a new medical school in Limpopo and a number of new academic hospitals
• Consider extending the length of first degrees to four years on a voluntary basis
• Provide full funding assistance covering tuition, books, accommodation and living allowance (in the form of loans and bursaries) to deserving students
• Grant seven-year work permits to all foreigners who graduate from a registered South African university

BUILD A CAPABLE STATE

• Fix the relationship between political parties and government officials
• Make the public service a career of choice
• Improve relations between national, provincial and local government
• Boost state-owned enterprises to help build the country
• Professionalise the police and criminal justice system

FIGHT CORRUPTION

• Centralise the awarding of large tenders or tenders that go for a long time
• Take political and legal steps to stop political interference in agencies fighting corruption
• Set up dedicated prosecution teams, specialist courts and judges
• Make it illegal for civil servants to run or benefit directly from certain types of business activity

PROVIDE QUALITY HEALTH

• Broaden coverage of antiretroviral treatment to all HIV-positive people
• Speed up training of community specialists in medicine, surgery including anaesthetics, obstetrics, paediatrics and psychiatry
• Recruit, train and deploy between 700 000 and 1.3 million community health workers to implement community-based health care
• Set minimum qualifications for hospital managers and ensure that all managers have the necessary qualifications
• Implement national health insurance in a phased manner
• Promote active lifestyles and balanced diets, control alcohol abuse and health awareness to reduce non-communicable diseases

TRANSFORMATION AND UNITY

• The Bill of Responsibility, developed by the Department of Basic Education and others, should be popularised and used as a pledge by all South Africans to live the values of the Constitution
• Encourage all South Africans to learn at least one African language
• Employment equity and other redress measures should continue and be made more effective