NCPGDS

FOREWORD BY THE HONOURABLE PREMIER OF THE NORTHERN CAPE, MS. DIPUO PETERS
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In response to President Mbeki’s call for all provinces to table their Provincial Growth and Development Strategies so as to facilitate harmonized planning between the three spheres of government, it gives me great pleasure to introduce you to the Northern Cape Provincial Growth and Development Strategy. This document represents the culmination of a consultative process that began in 2004 and was designed to elicit stakeholder inputs into the formulation of a comprehensive, multi faceted strategy for the economic and social development of the province.

 

Planning for the promotion of economic growth and social development lies at the core of government’s responsibility to provide a better life for all. To succeed in our efforts it is essential to ensure that planning is integrated across disciplines, co-ordinated within and between different planning jurisdictions and aligned with the budgeting processes of national, provincial and local government. Only in this way can we ensure the most optimal resource allocations and hence maximum development impact of public sector spending.

 

At the same time, committed as we are to Batho Pele and the principles of co-operative governance we wanted the production of the Northern Cape Provincial Growth and Development Strategy to be an exercise in participatory planning.Â

 

The express intention of consultation was to provide stakeholders from the private sector, organised labour and civil society with an opportunity to contribute to the formulation of this Provincial Growth and Development Strategy. In so doing it was our wish to make them our full partners in development. By adopting a partnership approach, role-players that subscribe to the development objectives contained in the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy will be guided strategically in the formulation of their programmes and activities.Â

 

I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to all our development partners to join us in developing an integrated and co-ordinated action plan for the implementation of this Strategy.

 

1.   A PROVINCIAL DEVELOPMENT VISION
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As a pre-requisite for putting the Northern Cape province on a sustained growth and development path, it is essential for all provincial stakeholders to adopt a common vision to guide their actions as they jointly pursue a mutually agreed set of growth and development objectives.Â

1.1.    Guiding Principles
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The Northern Cape Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (NCPGDS) is guided by the following principles:

·       Equality – ensuring that all persons should be treated equally;

·       Efficiency – the promotion of the optimal utilisation of existing physical, human and financial resources;

·       Integration – the integration of spatially coherent regional and local economic development, transport and communications, land-use patterns and service delivery systems;

·       Good Governance – the promotion of democratic, participatory, co-operative and accountable systems of governance;

·       Sustainability – the promotion of economic and social development through the sustainable management and utilisation of natural resources and the maintenance of the productive value of the physical environment; and

·       Batho Pele – prioritise people and their needs to serve their physical, psychological, developmental, economic, social and cultural interests equitably.

 

1.2.    The Vision
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Building a prosperous, sustainable, growing provincial economy to reduce poverty and improve social development.

 

 

2.   RATIONALE FOR THE NCPGDS
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One of the major challenges facing government is to promote economic growth and job creation, while at the same time providing for social development as a means to addressing the needs of the poor. To this end, the main rationale for the production of the NCPGDS is to enable all stakeholders from the public, private and parastatal sectors, together with labour and civil society, to jointly determine a strategy for the sustainable growth and development of the provincial economy.

 

Based on a comprehensive analysis of the status quo of economic and social conditions in the province the NCPGDS should provide a strategic focus, derived through consensus, around which all stakeholders can harness their collective efforts at promoting economic growth and development in the province. To bring about closer alignment of the planning efforts of local, provincial and national government, the NCPGDS also provides the framework for:

·       linking planning and budgeting in line with jointly agreed strategic objectives;

·       engaging with national government departments that have a co-responsibility for promoting growth and development in the province;

·       local government to derive their IDP’s and LED strategies;

·       engaging with DFI’s and parastatals to access finance to promote economic development;

·       engaging with the private sector to promote growth and development through the deployment of private investment capital; and

·        implementing strategies for SMME development, BEE and the upliftment of designated vulnerable groups and the poor.

 

Provincially, the NCPGDS must take centre stage and, as a ten-year rolling strategy, it should:

·       provide the framework and define the parameters within which provincial departments formulate their strategic plans and budgets;

·       serve as a yardstick against which to measure the performance of departments; and

·       be aligned with the electoral and budgeting processes.

 

The NCPGDS is based on a comprehensive analysis of the of economic and social conditions prevailing in the province and has identified the need to focus on sector specific strategies, programmes and project level opportunities and interventions, identify appropriate institutional delivery and review processes and integrate and seek alignment with Integrated Development Plans (IDP’s), sector development plans and the National Spatial Development Perspective (NSDP).

 

The NCPGDS has been drafted with due recognition of the policy and legislative framework of South Africa.

 

From a planning perspective, key factors influencing and guiding the NCPGDS are the National Spatial Development Perspective, Integrated Development Planning, National Government’s Programme of Action and harmonisation and alignment of the NSDP, NCPGDS and IDP’s.

 

3.   CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE NORTHERN CAPE
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3.1.    Social and Human Development Indicators
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·       The population of the Northern Cape has declined by 2.1% from 1996 to 2001;

·       The population trends indicate a shift of 0.9% in the 20 – 24 year old cohort,

     which can possibly be attributed to, amongst other things, people in this age group

     moving to other provinces for tertiary education and better career and job

     opportunities;

·       A trend in the Northern Cape over the past five years has been the migration of people from the more rural areas into the larger towns where access to opportunities and services are significantly better. This is reflected in the increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas from 75.2% in 1996 to 82.7% in 2001;

·       The life expectancy at birth in the Northern Cape has increased from 55.6 per 1000 in 1996 to 58.8 per 1000 in 2002. The infant mortality rate has increased from 41.8 in 1998 to 46.0 in 2002;

·       The health challenges faced by the province are:

Ø                 Malnutrition and Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS);

Ø                 Tuberculosis (TB);

Ø                 Chronic diseases: The incidence rate of Hypertension has seen an

            increase over the past five years; and

Ø                 Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (HIV) and the Acquired Immune

            Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS);

·       There is an increase in the number of students that have access to schooling;

·       The Human Development Index for the Northern Cape as a whole is 0.58, which is substantially below the national South African average of 0.72;

·       42.8% of the people have an income below the poverty breadline of R800;

·       3.4% of households in the Northern Cape have no access to clean piped water;

·       7.3% of households have access to piped water on a community stand more than 200m away;

·       11.2% of all households in the province have no access to sanitation and a further 11,8% of households in the province have access to bucket latrine systems;

·       80.2% of households live in formal structures and 12.5% in informal structures; and

·       There has been a steady decrease in the number of people dying as a result of murders. However, attempted murders have shown a marked increase. Other crime has fluctuated with assault to do grievous bodily harm decreasing and common robbery, common assault and rape increasing.

3.2.    Economic Indicators
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·       The economy of Northern Cape is heavily dependent on the primary sector, which in 2002 made up 31.0% of GDPR. The largest sector is mining, which has declined in contribution to the GDPR from 25.8% in 1996 to 23.7% in 2002. Agriculture, however, increased in its contribution from 6.2% to 7.3%;

·       A limited amount of processing of the primary commodity output in mining and agriculture takes place in the Northern Cape. Manufacturing contributes only 4.2% towards the GDPR;

·       The average real economic growth rate of the Northern Cape over the period 1996 to 2002 was 1.4%. This is lower than the average real economic growth rate of South Africa over the same period of 2.8%;

·       The provincial budget comprises of 98% of funds received from national government and 2% from own revenue; and

·       Unemployment rate increased from 28.3% to 33.4% between 1996 and 2001.

 

3.3.    Analysis of Socio-Economic Indicators
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An analysis of the socio-economic situation and indicators of the Northern Cape clearly indicates that the most significant challenge that the government and its partners in growth and development face, is the reduction of poverty.

 

All other societal challenges that the province is confronted with emanate predominantly from the effects of poverty. While addressing poverty we need to give attention to these societal problems, which includes the following:

·       Reducing the backlog of basic needs such as water, sanitation and housing;

·       Improving and increasing access to health, education and social services;

·       Decreasing the prevalence rate of HIV and AIDS; Â

·       Creating opportunities for employment;

·       Reducing crime; and

·       Targeting vulnerable groups.

 

The only effective means by which we can reduce poverty is through long-term sustainable economic growth and development. An analysis of the economic situation and indicators reflects opportunities for potential growth in the following sectors:

·       Agriculture and Agro-processing;

·       Fishing and Mariculture;

·       Mining and Mineral Processing;

·       Transport; Â

·       Manufacturing; and

·       Tourism.

 

To create the conditions that allow the poor to break the cycle of poverty and to ensure economic growth and development, it is vital to develop our human and social capital. This would require:

·       Creating opportunities for life-long learning;

·       Improving the skills of the labour force to increase productivity; and

·       Increasing access to knowledge and information.

 

To promote and encourage economic growth and to improve the living conditions of our people, we need to develop and maintain the provincial infrastructure and communications system.

 

In order to ensure efficiency in our quest to reduce poverty and promote economic growth and development, we need to overcome the challenge of ensuring a system of good governance and a corrupt-free society.Â