Bela-Bela - Much of this week's Cabinet Lekgotla gathering in the scenic Limpopo town of Bela-Bela will focus on government's performance since it came into office in 2009.
Briefing media on the side-lines of the meeting, which started on Tuesday with President Jacob Zuma and his Cabinet, Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane said the lekgotla would give direction to government's programme for 2012.
Described as the most important strategic session of the National Executive, the decisions taken at the lekgotla will provide the basis for Zuma's State of the Nation Address on 9 February.
Also top of the agenda are the national priorities of government such as job creation, health, education, safety and security, rural development and land reform.
The midterm review, which will include external expertise for an objective view, will identify what the bottlenecks have been in implementing programmes, with the view of enhancing its performance in 2012.
"As the National Executive, we have an established tradition and practice of being ruthless in our introspection and self-criticism [and of] of taking decisions that are in the best interest of all our people.
"The lekgotla will no doubt build on this tradition as we assess the past and prepare for the future," said Chabane.
He said government was confident that the review would be balanced because most of what has happened has been good for South Africans from all walks of life.
The lekgotla will also review progress made since the decision to establish the Infrastructure Coordination Commission (chaired by the President), the Short Term Job Creation Commission (chaired by the Deputy President) and the efforts to fight crime and corruption.
Last year was declared 'the year of job creation' with government targeting the creation of 500 000 jobs. However, the global economic downturn and the EuroZone debt crisis were among the reasons for government not meeting this target.
According to Chabane, the Executive will study reports on what were the problem areas in reaching the target and this will give an indication of joblessness in the country.
The meeting will be used to assess the global and domestic economic outlook with a view of identifying new opportunities and risks for South Africa.
"We will assess the state of our economy in the view of the continued global recession and will evaluate our response and involvement in various international questions."
The meeting will look to find ways to accelerate service delivery, while strengthening local government.
Departments and provinces are expected to outline their programmes and how they will be implementing them.
Targets will be set to enable government to monitor departments' progress, while reviews will be done on past programmes.
President Zuma is expected to officially close the event on Friday with a brief statement to be issued on Friday.
