Ten Year Review III

NEWS & MEDIA

Ten Year Review (VII)

If South Africa is to reach a higher trajectory of development, it needs to create employment and reduce the number of citizens dependent on social welfare.

This is the overriding challenge of the next decade identified in government 's discussion document 'Towards a Ten Year Review'. In this, the last in a series of articles on the findings of the review, we highlight some of the key challenges identified in each area of governance based on the conclusions of this research and evaluation.

While the aim of the ten year review process is to critically evaluate progress over the first ten years of democracy, it is also intended to lay a basis for public debate about how to approach the challenges that remain and thereby help chart the way forward into the second decade of democracy.

Each of the key challenges has been highlighted because, if urgently implemented, "it would help unlock faster movement in all other areas - it would be a catalyst towards ascending to a higher trajectory of development".

In the area of governance and administration, the document argues there needs to be a distinct and clear shift towards practical implementation of the policy that currently exists. This should include the adoption of project management practices and the training and deployment of Community Development Workers. These would be multi-skilled workers based in communities to help people access government services and programmes.

Another task would be to build the technical capacity of provincial and local government to improve service delivery and financial management. This would need to take place alongside work to develop and maintain partnerships with civil society to implement practical programmes to improve people's lives. In many areas, like the fight against HIV/Aids and the extension of social grants, there is already an active involvement of community-based, faith-based and other non-governmental organisations. The challenge is to deepen this involvement and extend it to other areas of government delivery.

Social challenges for the immediate period ahead include more efficient delivery of social grants to rural beneficiaries, the reduction of corruption and the incorporation of these grants into a system of comprehensive social security.

Direct interventions by government to tackle unemployment and poverty would include an expanded public works programme involving labour intensive construction and social services. This will provide larger groups of people with income and skills while ensuring the delivery of much-needed social infrastructure and services.

This programme would not however be able to adequately meet the country's employment and skills needs. It would merely be an immediate intervention that needs to complement and be reinforced by medium and long term strategies to develop the economy and the country's skills base.

This would include matching the skills developed in the country to the requirements of the economy. Focus should also be on "restructuring higher education, improving the uptake and graduation from ABET [Adult Basic Education and Training] programmes, and reducing disparities in access to education by the poor".

It would also be important to address HIV/Aids and other emerging diseases by reducing the incidence of infection among high risk groups, treating those infected and increasing access to home-based care.

While dealing with the backlogs inherited from apartheid, government also needs to respond to changing trends over the last ten years, including the decrease in the average household size - and therefore the increased number of households - between 1996 and 2001. Government will have to meet the growing demand for housing and services generated by this trend.

Among the immediate economic challenge is to implement the recommendation of the Growth and Development Summit (GDS), held earlier this year, which requires five percent of capital from relevant funds to be invested in productive activity in key sectors of the economy. At the same time, there needs to be an improvement in the levels of public sector investment in the economy.

Following the examples of the motor industry and tourism sector, government will support focused strategies in industries that have significant potential for growth and job creation. It will support the speeding up of industry restructuring to ensure global competitiveness, low commodity prices and better access to key markets.

It should also "continue with prudent macro-economic policies leading to a more stable currency and lower real interest rates".

In the area of justice and crime prevention, immediate challenges include improving the skills and numbers of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and building an efficient and integrated criminal justice system. There is a need to improve the intelligence capabilities of the SAPS, increase visible policing and build social partnerships with communities, business and organs of civil society.

Government should accelerate the implementation of social programmes that will help reduce the incidence of crime, including urban and rural renewal and moral regeneration. There would need to be improved efficiency in border control.

A higher trajectory of development in South Africa requires substantial progress in African development and movement towards a more equitable world order. Immediate tasks include uniting the world around the "common human values" which underpin the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), and taking practical steps to get projects going in countries that provide a stimulus for wider progress.

South Africa needs to play an active and leading role in the implementation of the NEPAD and the African Peer Review Mechanism. It needs to work with other countries to ensure African Union (AU) structures and programmes are "implemented, operationalised and consolidated". Building on work already done, South Africa should support the envisaged AU Peace and Security Council in its efforts to contribute to conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peacekeeping in Africa.

The country needs to redouble its efforts to market itself and the continent internationally, and pursue "economic diplomacy" to expand the country's economic links to Africa and other parts of the world and to encourage far higher levels of foreign direct investment.

The government's review concludes that the positive achievements of the first decade of democracy far outweigh the negative aspects. However, if this balance is to be retained, South Africa needs to work together now to lift the country onto a higher trajectory of development.