Cape Town – The government remained committed to nuclear power generation to meet the country’s growing energy needs and facilitate economic growth in decades to come, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said today.
“Nuclear power is ideal in this sense, because we can build large nuclear power plants at points around our southern coastline, and potentially elsewhere in the future,” Motlanthe told MPs.
Addressing the National Assembly during the Budget Vote of the Presidency, Motlanthe said nuclear power plant construction would also bring significant economic benefits to local industry.
But he stressed that the government remained committed to investing in research and development of clean energy technologies, while conscious to ensure minimal environmental impact.
“Beyond this South Africa has well-established regulatory health and safety standards critical to the management of nuclear systems and facilities,” he added.
These measures, he said, include regulation on licensing, nuclear construction and fabrication, health and safety monitoring, and the training of the required skilled personnel.
Motlanthe added that the government had also approved the establishment of the National Nuclear Energy Executive Co-ordination Committee to make high level recommendations on the country’s nuclear energy programme.
HIV/Aids treatment programmes
Motlanthe, who also heads the South African National AIDS Council (Sanac), said South Africa had one of the largest HIV/Aids treatment programmes in the world with the latest surveys indicating that the number of new HIV infections has decreased from 650 000 a year in 2000 to 290 000 in 2012.
“We have indeed made huge progress but we must not be complacent. The number of new HIV and TB infections is still high requiring extra-ordinary effort from all sectors of society with support from the development partners,” he pointed out.
However he said the country needed to invest in more research focusing on addressing the social determinants of ill- health in a more co-ordinated manner with a long-term focus.
National Development Plan
Also addressing the National Assembly, Trevor Manuel, the Minister in the Presidency responsible for the National Planning Commission, said the National Development Plan (NDP) had galvanised society to seriously think about and debate the future of this country.
“In any given week, there are conferences, seminars or workshops to discuss the NDP in the different parts of our country,” said Manuel.
“These events are not organised by the commission – they are organised by people across a wide range of sectors who care about the future of this country.
The NDP was approved by the cabinet in September last year and the process of disaggregating the plan into the first of the five-year plans in the form of the Medium Term Strategic Framework is underway.
Manuel said though not everyone agreed with all the details in the NDP there is no denying that it has become a central part of the national narrative.
He said it is important to reassure the nation that the NDP is indeed South Africa’s roadmap and that people are striving to make it work.
“Rather than patting ourselves on the back we should instead be asking whether the initiatives being implemented will actually deliver change to those that need it the most,” he said.
Reforms put in place following NDP
He outlined reforms that a number of government departments had begun putting in place following the release of the NDP.
These included the announcement of a number of reforms championed by the Minister of Public Service and Administration Lindiwe Sisulu to address capacity weaknesses in the public service as well as strengthen the fight against corruption.
Added to this the Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan announced reforms in the 2013 Budget to strengthen the fight against corruption in the supply-chain management system by assigning a deputy director-general in his department to this initiative.
“Just this week, Minister (Jeff) Radebe announced the far-reaching decision by the Justice and Crime Prevention and Security Cluster to release publicly a list of names of people who have been convicted of fraud and corruption – demonstrating the zero tolerance approach to corruption that the NDP proposes,” said Manuel.
Added to this the Ministry of Sports and Recreation and the Ministry of Basic Education had reintroduced schools sports and physical education in schools across the country.
Towards the end of last year, the Ministry of Health also launched a pilot project on integrated school health as a critical element of our revitalised primary health care system.
“All of these are recommendations contained in the NDP,” he said, while also stressing that the NDP is not a plan for government only and that all South Africans should be involved in initiatives to improve the country.
He said the executive summary of the NDP had been translated into all 11 languages, which is now available on the commission’s website: www.npconline.co.za.
Manuel said more copies of the NDP will be printed and distributed to all public and university libraries, Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges and Thusong centres.
Work will also start immediately on producing a pocket size version of the NDP to ensure greater accessibility.
Manuel said the commission manages two main research programmes – the National Income Dynamics Study which consists of a panel study aimed at providing data on income and the Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development which offers grants to researchers to undertake studies in government priority areas. – SAnews.gov.za
