South Africa’s third National Planning Commission (NPC) has made implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP) its top priority for its five-year term, despite the fact that implementation of the plan does not fall directly within its mandate.

Appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in December, the commission acknowledges that there has been insufficient progress in implementing the NDP, which was adopted ten years ago with the goals of ending extreme poverty and reducing unemployment and inequality by 2030.

In fact, deputy chairperson Professor Tinyiko Maluleke noted during a briefing that poverty, hunger, inequality and unemployment were all on the rise and that there was a “palpable sense of social disenchantment with the scale and speed of progress made against the NDP targets and priorities”.

“I couldn’t agree more with those among us, including our chair, Minister Mondli Gungubele, who have suggested that the third NPC has no more than three priorities: priority number one is implementation, number two is implementation and number three is implementation,” Maluleke said.

He added that the NPC, thus, had no choice but to focus attention on implementation, despite those cautioning “against misdirecting ourselves and misunderstanding our mandate”.

“There is, of course, a reason why we are called the National Planning Commission and not the National Implementation Commission.

“But if implementation is slow or nonexistent, planning alone is clearly insufficient.”

The third NPC should at least be able to explain why implementation had not occurred, he added.

“This may be the most critical thing that this NPC has to establish.

“We have to probe why it has been so hard to prioritise, coordinate, cohere, cascade down, streamline and pinpoint the necessary catalytic interventions necessary to embed and institutionalise the NDP within the departmental, provincial, and municipal plans.”

This stance was amplified by Gungubele, who said that, while the NPC’s focus must be on long-term planning, it was equally important that it understood how implementation took place and what the obstacles were so as to “provide guidance as we get back on course to meeting our long-term goals”.

The new NPC would seek to use its convening power to “plug” itself into existing initiatives, including those under way in response to Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address call for the crafting of a new consensus on the economy within 100 days.

Three workstreams have been created to support its task of “calling the country back to the NDP”, including one that will focus on an ‘expanded, inclusive and fairer economy’.

The other two would pursue initiatives under the themes of ‘enhancing quality of life’ and ‘building an active citizenry, a capable State and leadership’.