The Democratic Alliance has come out broadly in support of the National Development Plan as compiled by the planning commission headed by Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel.
This weekend, DA leader and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille and several other senior members of her party hosted Manuel to discuss the plan that was still in its consultative phase and had not been finalised yet.
"The DA takes the National Development Plan (NDP) very seriously indeed. We believe it represents significant progress and that most of its policy proposals, if implemented, would redress apartheid's legacy at an unprecedented scale and pace," Zille said in a statement issued on Sunday.
The plan was developed on the instructions of President Jacob Zuma with the aim of developing the country's goals and objectives in 20 years' time. It has undergone intense discussions in Parliament over the past few weeks with all the political parties adding their viewpoints.
Zille said that there was a strong convergence between the NDP and the proposals the DA was developing as part of its policy project to create jobs through increasing economic growth to 8%.
She said the similar points of departure included:
- Pursuing growth as the best way to fight poverty and unemployment;
- involving individuals and communities in their own development;
- requiring a competent state to provide excellent education and essential services;
- creating the right conditions for investment and job creation that drive a virtuous cycle of sustained development;
- moving from passive to active citizenry;
- developing people's own capacity to pursue lives they value.
"When it comes to growth and jobs, we are encouraged that the youth wage subsidy - long championed by the DA - is seen as a key mechanism to fight unemployment. We do, however, believe that the plan could be bolder when it comes to labour market flexibility," Zille said.
The DA has been pushing hard for the implementation of a youth wage subsidy that would have the aim of encouraging firms to employ more young people. However, labour movement Cosatu has been strongly opposed to it, claiming that such a subsidy would just place money in the hands of business owners and prejudice older workers.
Other points that the DA agreed with the NDP on included that infrastructure investment was vital and that bureaucratic bottlenecks and red tape were holding up housing delivery and needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
The DA agreed that all South Africans deserved access to quality healthcare, but disagreed that the answer was the National Health Insurance as endorsed in the NDP as there was no reason to believe that it would fix the accountability problems that resulted in poor quality healthcare.
While the DA agreed with the plan for a professional public service, it disagreed that there should be one public service for all tiers of government.
The DA said in its statement that it noted there was significant opposition to the NDP, not least from the ANC's own alliance partners.
"By contrast, the NDP finds a natural champion in the DA. We welcome the NDP's frank assessment of our country's challenges and we support its overall policy thrust," the DA statement said.
