By Gaye Davis
Group Deputy Political Editor
Some of the best brains in the country are likely to be recruited by President Jacob Zuma to serve on the National Planning Commission and hammer out a long-term strategic plan for the country.
"If you want the National Planning Commission to work, you are looking at 20 or so individuals with diverse interests and skills... ultimately, I think we'd want a fairly open process to attract people, but allow the president and cabinet to decide who those individuals should be," Trevor Manuel, the Minister in the Presidency who heads the commission, has said.
A green paper released on Friday fleshes out how the proposed commission would work.
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The Presidency also released a policy document on improving government performance - the domain of Collins Chabane, the Minister in the Presidency for performance, monitoring and evaluation.
The two documents signal a radical shift in the government's approach to planning and implementation.
Until now, state planning has focused on five-year cycles linked to general elections - too short for the government to get to grips with persistent and looming long-term challenges from urbanisation to deeply rooted social inequities.
At the same time, evaluation has relied too heavily on compliance with regulations - without checking whether policies are achieving the desired outcomes.
While Manuel did not name names, ex-World Bank executive Mamphela Ramphele, Eskom chairman Bobby Godsell and SABMiller chairman Vincent Maphai have already been mentioned as potential planning commissioners .
It is proposed that their role will be advisory and their positions part-time. A secretariat will provide technical support, while the expertise of academic and research institutions will be harnessed in constructing Vision 2025 - a long-term national strategic plan.
Manuel said opposition party leaders had agreed to study the proposals, which would be tabled in the National Assembly this eek.
- This article was originally published on page 5 of Cape Times on September 07, 2009
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