Johnathan Paoli
THE first Government of National Unity Cabinet Lekgotla is being held over the weekend at the Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House in Tshwane.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and Deputy President Paul Mashatile presided over the meeting, joined by leaders from all three levels of government, including ministers, premiers, directors-general, and representatives from the South African Local Government Association.
President Ramaphosa said policy positions were clear, as set out in various manifestos, in order to give effect to the key priorities of what South Africans expect.
“So all that is going to be synchronised, properly set out, and when we open the government, we will be setting out the real programme of this government of national unity,” he said.
The lekgotla set out the programme of action the government is intended to take during the seventh administration.
Speaking on the sidelines of the lekgotla on Saturday, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the programme of action is guided by priorities agreed to by parties in the GNU’s Statement of Intent.
“That will allow us to then go back and consolidate what you know as the Medium Term Strategic Framework, now we are calling it the Medium Term Development Plan,” Ntshavheni said.
Ntshavheni said among the nine priorities agreed upon, the meeting will facilitate a number of presentations on how agreement would proceed, and that the discussions would further be guided by the National Development Plan (NDP).
The priorities set out in the SOI include: economic growth, job creation and transformation; creation of a just society; stabilising local government; investment though education, skills development and healthcare; building state capacity; strengthening law enforcement agencies; strengthening the effectiveness of parliament; strengthening social cohesion, nation-building and democratic participation; and a foreign policy based on human rights and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
Ntshavheni said the meeting would further be guided by evidence-based planning and action.
“We’ve tabled the budget of Statistics SA to say we are starting to work on the indicators of how to support the implementation of the District Development Model to be evidence based, and to strengthen our research capabilities to make sure that we move with speed to achieve the goals of the NDP,” she said.
The minister said following the adoption of the programme, clusters would go to work on the priorities and initiatives, followed by the departments.
“The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, during that period, will continue to work and make sure that there’s alignment across departments and everyone knows what they want to do,” Ntshavheni said.
She said this remained necessary in order to ensure against any potentially harmful effects of sectarian and divisive ideological influences on the cabinet ministers.
“We are going to implement government priorities collectively because there’s no ‘DA minister’, there’s no ‘ANC minister’, there is only a ‘minister of government’,” she said.
She said the meeting is expected to consolidate a single view and programme of action that is agreed to by all and that cascades to the provinces.
Ramaphosa will communicate the outcomes of the lekgotla during the opening of Parliament on Thursday next week.
Many have described this historic meeting as an opportunity to set the tone on how the coalition is expected to work over the next five years.
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