President Jacob Zuma responded to Minister in The Presidency Trevor Manuel’s appeal that the National Development Plan (NDP) be reaffirmed as the country’s development “road map”. But he also used his response to the debate on The Presidency Budget Vote to highlight government’s other economic strategies, including the New Growth Path (NGP), which is favoured by the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) alliance partners.

Speaking from the same platform only a day earlier, Manuel stressed that disagreements with the NDP centered on the proposed strategies to create jobs, grow the economy and ensure economic inclusion, rather than with its goals. He, thus, urged Zuma to “reassure the nation that the NDP is indeed our road map”.

Speaking in the National Assembly, Zuma responded by saying that the NDP offered a “long-term socioeconomic development road map”.

He also reminded critics, the most fervent of which are within the governing alliance, that the establishment of a planning entity was endorsed in the ANC’s 2009 Manifesto and that the NDP was a key achievement of the fourth ANC administration.

“The plan was adopted by Cabinet. It enjoys the support of Parliament. It was also endorsed by the ruling party, the ANC, at its national conference in Mangaung in December. The NDP also enjoys the support of other sectors of society. Very few policy documents have ever enjoyed such widespread support,” Zuma said.

Zuma fobbed off opposition party concerns that the NDP was being undermined by the ANC’s alliance partners – the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) – which had both released harsh critiques of the document. It has also been reported by Business Day that the Cabinet has agreed for the chapter on foreign relations to be redrafted.

“Given our democratic culture and tradition in the ANC, we allow freedom of expression and debate. Therefore, we do not share the hysteria expressed by some in the opposition when people raise their views about the National Development Plan or criticise it.”

However, he also used his address to stress that the NGP, which has generally been endorsed by both Cosatu and the SACP, “now forms part of the National Development Plan”.

In addition, Zuma used his main Budget Vote speech of June 12 to call for “constructive inputs” on the NDP “proposals”, which would be incorporated into the Medium-Term Strategic Framework of government.

“This framework will inform the work of government for the next five years, and will be aligned with the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, which informs the Budget process.”

The platform was also used to describe the NDP as an “umbrella”, incorporating not only the NGP, but also the Industrial Policy Action Plan and the near-term R827-billion National Infrastructure Plan.