Karima Brown
5 November 2009
Johannesburg — THE African National Congress (ANC) and its leftist allies want President Jacob Zuma to head up the state's planning commission, saying that if the government is to have a coherent developmental plan, the president has to "arbitrate" between competing interests.
In a document titled, Towards an alliance approach on the green paper on national strategic planning, the architects explain the need for Zuma to head the commission thus: "To ensure an integrated and coherent national development plan and a national vision, presidential leadership is needed."
The proposal is the result of discussions and recommendations emanating from the work of the ANC's economic transformation committee and its policy committee on the green paper. It has run parallel to the public participation process under way in Parliament on the green paper, released by Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel .
ANC insiders say that the alliance process and the parliamentary process will complement each other and come together when the matter comes before the Cabinet.
The release of the controversial paper also fuelled the ongoing battle in the alliance and the Cabinet over who controls economic policy and where it is located within the state.
The alliance's proposal -- aimed at developing a unified approach among the allies -- comes after a series of high-level policy meetings, the last of which happened on Tuesday. Driving the process is ANC national executive committee member Jeff Radebe , who heads up the party's policy subcommittee.
According to the proposal, the Planning Commission should be composed of the chairs of cabinet clusters and ministers nominated by the president, instead of the group of 20 people from civil society envisaged by Manuel.
In Manuel's green paper, there is no role for Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel, whom Zuma has asked to develop macro- and microeconomic planning.
The latest proposal, however, addresses the need to involve the appropriate line function ministries in policy and planning roles, placing Patel in pole position on economic planning.
The overarching strategic cohesion of the Planning Commission will also have to involve all line departments, clusters, provinces, municipalities and the parastatal sector.
This is different to the green paper, which limits the role of line- function ministries.
Duplication in policy development should be avoided, according to the alliance document.
"Although the green paper does raise the relationship between policy and planning, it should be clear that the responsibility of the Presidential Planning Commission is planning only, " the proposal states.
The proposal also calls for setting up a Presidential Planning Advisory Group, to be co-ordinated by Nedlac, which could meet twice a year to give Zuma "specialist advice".
Manuel and Collins Chabane, the minister in the presidency responsible for monitoring and evaluation, would jointly oversee the work of the secretariat. However, the function of such a secretariat is not to create a "hierarchy" over clusters and line departments. "The president plays that role in respect of his ministers," the document reads.
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