The five-year Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) is to be used by government as a guide to planning, developing South Africa, allocating resources and for performance evaluation, writes Bathandwa Mbola.
The Minister in the Presidency: National Planning Commission, Trevor Manuel, who released the framework on Tuesday, said all spheres of government would align themselves to the MTSF so they could work to achieve one objective.
He said he hoped it was a framework that all South Africans and government's social partners could align themselves with.
The 10 strategic priorities outlined in the framework include economic and social infrastructure, rural redevelopment, food security and land reform, access to quality education, improved health care and the fight against crime and corruption.
Recently adopted by Cabinet, the MTSF will guide how government will create a better life for all in the midst of an economic downturn.
Mr Manuel said the objective of growth and transformation, and creating decent work and sustainable lives is the foremost priority of government.
"Government needs to apply pressure on itself, deal with it's micro-economic reforms, analyse performance and work with its social partners," he said, adding that government's work agenda would also be critical to addressing this.
Government is still committed to halving unemployment and poverty by 2014, despite the global economic downturn, he said.
"The challenge that presents itself to us, is that we cannot continue with the high levels of unemployment," he said, adding that this was the kind of commitment that government must make together with its social partners.
The minister spelled out that the emphasis of the MTSF was the centrality of a growth path which addresses the economy's structural contrasts, while expanding on the industrial base through the creation of decent work opportunities on a larger scale.
Mr Manuel said government would do its best to ensure that the burden of the economic situation was not felt by the poorest of the poor and that its allocation of resources will have to be reviewed.
"It's not going to be plain-sailing," said the minister.
In order to ensure food security in South Africa, government has committed to developing rural land and supporting emerging farmers. This is government's third strategic priority.
By aggressively implementing land reform policies, stimulating agricultural production and improving service delivery and revitalising rural towns, government hopes to make inroads in developing rural areas and making them productive.
Focusing on access to quality education, the MTSF acknowledges that the improvement of schools and the achievement of learners has not been optimal.
Early childhood development, improvement of school management and the supporting and developing of a high quality teaching profession will form the basis of strengthening the skills and human resources base.
"Our objective is thus to focus our skills and education system towards the delivery of quality outcomes,' said Minister Manuel.
In the health care sector, the MTSF stipulates that government aims to transform the public health system to reduce inequalities in the health system, improve quality of care and public facilities, boost human resources and step up the fight against HIV and Aids, TB and other communicable diseases.
Alluding to the proposed National Health Insurance, Mr Manuel said this was one way in which government could enhance South Africa's health profile. He said discussions and consultations would be carried out before the Department of Health tabled the plan and strategy in Parliament.
"This must be part of government's programmes for the next five years," he said.
Key to the MTSF is the strengthening of the criminal justice system and the involvement of communities in the war against crime.
Challenges in ensuring safe communities include weaknesses in the criminal justice system, shortage of skills and large workloads for the police, courts and correctional centres, a less than satisfactory accountability system and disappointing levels of community involvement.
Government's seventh priority is to build cohesive, caring and sustainable communities, through breaking down inequalities in wealth and opportunities halving employment and poverty by 2014, while promoting shared values and social solidarity.
The framework which also acknowledged the development challenges facing South Africa, spells out the initiatives, programmes and targets that will be required to improve the lives of South Africans.
Regarding the improvement of the public services, the MTSF outlines that government will continue to address the challenges that it faces.
This includes capacity gaps in local government, poor quality of some public services, declining trust and confidence in public service and weak planning. These have led to violent service delivery protests by communities in various provinces.
"As we strive to overcome these hurdles, our long term goal remains the building of an effective and accountable state," assured Mr Manuel.
The priorities outlined in the MTSF will further be translated into the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of government ministers, against which their performance over this term will be measured.
The progress of the work of government will be monitored and evaluated to assess the impact and the weakness of government.
The seven clusters of government are finalising their contribution into a detailed programme of action, translating the medium- term imperatives into a six-month government action plan.
