Durban — KwaZulu-Natal will have its medium-term development plan (MTDP) by the end of August which will become a programme goal for the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) for the next five years.
Premier Thami Ntuli addressed his Premier Co-ordinating Forum (PCF) on Wednesday, which is a structure that brings together all relevant stakeholders in the administration of the province.
Part of the forum’s work was to make a final input to the MTDP. The plan was expected to consolidate the priorities of the provincial government in terms of the premier’s inaugural speech in June, technical and political lekgotlas, the state of the province and the budget vote policy statements by all departments.
Ntuli said the provincial government could not afford to be general in its approach, saying that in terms of agreed time lines, by the end of the month the provincial government was expected to conclude the MTDP.
“This session is supposed to be a strategic session and like all effective strategic sessions should have a strategic agenda, content, programme, thinking and dialogue,” Ntuli said.
Ntuli added that another key measure of being strategic was whether the presentations delivered at the forum were linked to the political party manifestos as captured in the statement of intent signed by all participating political parties that were in the Government of National Unity.
Furthermore, Ntuli said all presentations should be linked to the budget, otherwise all presentations would be a wishlist. Ntuli said he was mindful that the seventh administration was hamstrung by limited budget and financial resources, adding that it was also true that any budget pronouncements were of the previous administration’s commitments.
Ntuli warned that although the new administration, had started on a deficit, the new administration could not afford to recycle unworkable programmes, calling for creativity and prioritisation of high-impact service delivery programmes to the people.
He reminded the forum that at the centre of all deliberations there was one priority which was to have a capable, ethical, developmental state. Ntuli also lamented the province’s high unemployment rate.
According to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey released last week, the unemployment rate in the province increased by 1,2%. Ntuli said this was concerning, urging for creative ways to arrest the situation.
“The forum meeting was convened against the sad backdrop of an increasing unemployment rate, alarmingly high levels of crime and many ailing municipalities in our province,” Ntuli said.
The forum was expected to discuss the rollout of crime-fighting plans soon in the municipalities which was to be accompanied by district crime summits.
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