Cape Town - The performance of the public service is uneven and at times "lousy" with corruption undermining state legitimacy and service delivery, Minister in the Presidency
Trevor Manuel said on Thursday.
"Productivity remains low in labour intensive parts of the public service like education, health and policing. The public service needs to get better at consistent long-term thinking and implementation."
Briefing media at parliament, he said these were some of the findings of research done by the National Planning Commission (NPC) in its efforts to map out a vision for the country.
He released the so-called diagnostic document and vision statement for 2030 at a media briefing at parliament and called for public comment.
The document, drawn up after a year of intensive work by 26 NPC commissioners, outlined seven other problem areas.
These included poverty, inequality, spatial problems, and poorly located, inadequate and poorly maintained infrastructure.
Another problem was that South Africa's growth path was highly resource-intensive and hence unsustainable.
Its "ailing" health system confronted a massive disease burden and the nation remained divided, said Manuel.
"Of these nine challenges we feel that two of them are more important. These are that too few South Africans are employed and the quality of education for most black people remains poor."
Manuel said the commission's research showed that only 41 out of 100 adults are employed - an unusually low ratio by international standards.
The performance of major parts of the schooling system remains poor.
"While we have made some progress, especially on access to education and equity in the funding of education, we have not made sufficient progress in improving the quality of schooling for the majority of black learners."
The high rates of HIV/Aids and tuberculosis, injuries and trauma, infant and maternal mortality, non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease had played the biggest role in putting the health system under "severe strain and distress".
The commission found the country needs a developmental path that promotes growth and social equity.
There must be high quality education and healthcare as well as adequate housing, water, sanitation, energy and transport.
South Africa must be a more efficient state that would protect its citizens, provide quality services and infrastructure and give leadership to national development.
Businesses must be afforded an environment to invest and profit while promoting the common interests of the nation, including decent work.
He said that while all the information presented sounded familiar, it was backed by research and strong evidence and it was seeking to build a national consensus on the way forward.
Officials would be visiting towns and cities from June to September for public engagement.
"The commission urges the public to comment on this diagnostic document, to strengthen our analysis of what is wrong and what needs to be fixed.
"Now that we know it (the challenges), we raise it in public and collectively we have to fix it. To know where you're going, it helps to know where you are. Let's turn this country around."
Manuel stressed that the commission was not affected by political cycles or elections - its work was to draw up a vision statement for the nation.
He described it as a "societal" issue instead of a political one.
"The elements of the vision statement are drawn from the preamble of the constitution and the Bill of Rights, which are in turn drawn from the Freedom Charter."
He said the commission would release its vision statement and plan to cabinet on November 11.
The commission's deputy chairperson
Cyril Ramaphosa said that while the constitution had elements of a vision, there was no real future plan and that President
Jacob Zuma wanted a plan for the country.
But he said the government would eventually decide what to do with the plan. He said South Africa's problems had been diagnosed. It was not "terminal" and healing could happen.