Pretoria - South Africa can get rid of poverty and reduce inequality over the next 20 years if it undergoes a paradigm shift, according to the national development plan released on Friday.
“At the core of the vision statement are two issues... it’s about eliminating poverty and reducing inequality and giving South Africans a better life,” National Planning Commission (NPC) deputy chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters in Pretoria.
“This requires a new approach - one that moves from passive citizenry receiving services from the state, to one that systematically includes the socially and economically excluded,” reads an overview of the plan developed by the NPC.
The NPC is headed by Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel, who worked with 24 independent commissioners since their appointment in May 2010 to produce South Africa’s first-ever national development plan.
The plan proposes that people are active champions of their own development, and that the government work effectively to develop people’s capabilities.
The success of this approach requires faster economic growth and higher investment and employment, rising education standards, a healthy population and social protection. It would need an effective and capable government, collaboration between the private and public sectors and strong leadership from all sectors of society.
Elimination of poverty and inequalityThe two main goals of the plan are to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030.
South Africa has not adopted a standard definition of poverty, so the NPC suggests using a poverty line of about R418 (in 2009 prices) per person per month.
The plan’s success would be based on reducing the proportion of people living below this level from 39% of the population at present to zero by 2030.
Reducing inequality would be achieved if the Gini coefficient falls from the current level of 0.7 to 0.6 by 2030. The Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality, with zero representing full equality and one maximum inequality. A level of 0.6 would still be high but mark a significant shift, according to the report.
In the report nine main challenges are identified, including the two most important: too few people working and a poor standard of education for most black pupils.
“Increasing employment and improving the quality of education must be the highest priorities. Failure to raise employment and improve the quality of education would signal failure,” according to the report.
The other problems identified are poorly located and maintained infrastructure, or lack thereof; spatial patterns that exclude the poor from the fruits of development; an economy overly and unsustainably resource intensive; and a widespread disease burden compounded by a failing public health system.
Public services are uneven and often of poor quality, corruption is widespread and South Africa remains a divided society.
If these problems are not addressed, it could lead to a destructive cycle which would see economic decline, falling living standards, rising competition for resources and social tension.
“Persistently high levels of poverty will prompt social instability, leading to a rise in populist politics and demands for short-term measures that lead to further tension and decline,” according to the report.
Ramaphosa said many of the ideas in the plan were not new, but had been examined in an overarching way in great detail and depth.
“It provides a number of proposals… that if implemented could catapult our country upwards (to) solve many of our problems,” he said.
The vision statement and national development plan were handed to President Jacob Zuma on Friday afternoon.
The president would consider them, and there would be consultations over the next six months to improve on the plan. After this, cabinet could adopt it.