Minister in The Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Jeff Radebe would “soon” call for nominations for commissioners to serve on the country’s second National Planning Commission (NPC), with the term of the inaugural commission set to end in May.

President Jacob Zuma established the NPC in 2009 and it was made up of 25 commissioners drawn from civil society, chaired by former Minister in The Presidency Responsible for the NPC Trevor Manuel.

Manuel’s deputy was former businessperson and now Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and Radebe took over as chair after the 2014 elections, when Manuel departed from government and Ramaphosa was appointment to his current position.

The NPC oversaw the crafting of the controversial National Development Plan (NDP) 2030, which has been widely embraced by business and other elements of civil society, but which is still opposed by elements of the governing tripartite alliance, especially the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

Despite its adoption by Cabinet and moves by departments to align their policies and programmes with the plan, there was also still widespread scepticism about whether the plan would be implemented.

Many commentators have not only criticised elements of the plan itself, but have pointed to major contradictions between it and other government programmes, most notably the New Growth Path.

Observers also noted that Zuma made only scant reference to the NDP during his most recent State of the Nation Address, delivered during a turbulent joint sitting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces, during which the cellular signal was jammed, Economic Freedom Fighter MPs were ejected from the house en masse and the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, walked out in protest over the use of armed security guards, some of whom were members of the South African Police Service, who were deployed to restore order.

But in a statement, Zuma described the NDP as a “landmark” document and “our inspiration”.

“It constantly reminds us of what type of society we can be by 2030, which is why we have begun working systematically to achieve that goal within government,” Zuma said, adding that the Medium-Term Strategic Framework for 2014 to 2019 provided the five-year implementation framework for the NDP.

"All the work that government is doing between now and 2019 is practically the implementation of the NDP. We urge business and other sectors to also institutionalise the NDP in their planning processes and programmes so that we can move the country forward together,'' said the President.

The Presidency indicated that future NPC members would need to have skills in infrastructure development, urban and regional planning, energy, agriculture and food security, education and training, health, public policy and governance, community engagement, economics, finance, budgeting and banking, information communication technology, telecommunications and broadcasting, business and industry, water and sanitation, science and technology, social cohesion and nation building, futures research and scenario planning, climate change and youth development.