Opinion Article by Vusumzi Gqalane, Centre for Teaching and Learning, University of the Free State.

In the case of South Africa, in December 2012 the African National Congress (ANC), at its 53rd national congress held in Mangaung, adopted the National Development Plan (NDP). The NDP Vision 2030 is a comprehensive and ambitious blueprint for South Africa’s future towards better living conditions for its citizens. The plan’s primary goals include eliminating inequality and eradicating poverty through various important purposes and programmes to expand South Africa’s development. The ANC-led administration drafted the 2030 National Development Plan (NDP) in 2011 and adopted it in 2012. The National Planning Commission (NPC) was led by Trevor Manuel, then Chairperson and Minister in the Presidency. The NDP was hailed as a long-term economic, social, and political development plan created to address South Africa’s difficulties and provide a vision for the country’s future.

Look at some of the issues and difficulties South Africa’s people encounter, which are supposed to have been tackled by the NDP. For instance, local government is considered the sphere of governance closest to the people. It plays a crucial role in implementing national policies and achieving the goals outlined in the NDP. However, local government in South Africa is often described as dysfunctional and marked by unstable and fragile coalition administrations which have struggled to deliver fundamental services like water, health care, and housing.

A decade later with National Development Plan

More than 10 years later South Africa is on the brink of collapse. As a result, social and economic inequality can no longer be ignored. On August 1, 2023, President Cyril Ramaphosa welcomed the NPC’s 10-Year review of the NDP report. Like many other reviews, this exposed the lack and need for more oversight, effective implementation of the NDP, and its failure to meet its target to fight poverty, unemployment, and inequalities. Even in the face of economic challenges, the ANC remains determined to achieve its economic goals for 2030. This despite various ANC leaders, including President Ramaphosa, admitting that the government has failed to implement and reach the NDP’s targets successfully. Former President Thabo Mbeki has also criticised the NDP, saying: “The National Development Plan is not a plan, it’s a vision. We need to take the NDP and elaborate a plan to achieve these objectives outlined in the NDP. I don’t sense that any work is being done to implement it. Let’s elaborate an implementation plan out of the NDP, and that might get us somewhere.” The criticism can be interpreted as exposing the incompetence of the government and its failure to translate policies into programmes. As stated in my opening, a vision without a plan is bound to fail. The question remains whether the NDP dream is still alive or is it fading. Is it possible that the ANC’s commitment to the NDP is merely a rhetorical and political strategy to maintain relevance, akin to other political slogans such as ‘Radical Economic Transformation’? 

The above reflects the ANC’s lack of intent to rebuild this country’s economy. It is only concerned about the party’s renewal, so members may elect each other and loot what is left of this failing state. Today’s ANC lacks a moral compass and has deviated from the initial goal, which was genuinely founded for our nation’s common good and based on the Freedom Charter. Our country is today influenced by a political party whose individual desires have taken priority over the goals and interests of the country. We are confronting challenges and stagnation because of the priority of self-interest over the nation’s well-being. With everything that has happened and still happening, one cannot but reflect on the words of Nelson Mandela when he said: “If the ANC does to you what the apartheid government did to you, then you must do to the ANC what you did to the apartheid government.” Perhaps we have forgotten the words of the former president because, by now, our living conditions have reached a point where enough is enough. 

As we approach the much-anticipated general elections in 2024, our primary responsibility as citizens is to reflect on a future beyond the ANC. The extent of the incompetence of and endemic corruption within the government runs exceedingly deep and is out of control. The death of the ANC will pave the way for a more competitive and highly contested political and ideological landscape in South Africa. However, the question is, do we have an alternative?