Page 24 - Service Delivery Review

National Development Plan and State Capacity Conference

The Constitution, the NDP and the Provincial tional outcomes undermine literacy, numeracy and
Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) the province’s and country’s competitiveness.
In a constitutional democracy, this calls for volun-
tary Social Compacting. Ten years into the NDP, There is inadequate focus on emotional well-being,
this remains one of the challenges to a national and the reskilling of educators does not focus on the
consensus that will lift our growth trajectory signifi- impact of the 4IR on education, which has resulted in
cantly. The resulting failure to manage this tension a substantial mismatch between our province’s skills
between planning and implementation undermines demand and supply axis. This is a matter that has
the achievements of our targets and indicators and, been raised sharply by the private sector as well. We
more importantly, the aspirations of the people as en- are now addressing this vigorously with the project of
shrined in our Constitution, which in its preamble our the SMART Province, which will see the rollout of the
Constitution commits us to: digital economy and 4IR skills and all its attendant
technologies.
• “Heal the divisions of the past and establish
a society based on democratic values, so- Addressing poverty and equality
cial justice and fundamental human rights; In 2021, 8.33 million people were living in poverty
across KwaZulu-Natal province. This is sadly 30.63%
• Lay the foundations for a democratic and higher than the 6.38 million in 2011. Unsurprisingly,
open society in which government is based the population group with the highest poverty per-
on the will of the people and every citizen is centage is African, with a total of 78.3%. This is where
equally protected by law; the skills shortage is also highest. Among others, pro-
grammes are being introduced to upskill households
• Improve the quality of life of all citizens and in agricultural production activities and provide sup-
free each person’s potential; and port in seeds and implements.
• Build a united and democratic South Africa In 2011 the number of households below the RDP
able to take its rightful place as a sovereign level was 686 000 within KwaZulu-Natal province.
state in the family of nations.” This decreased -2.55% per annum to 530 000 in

Situational analysis of implementation of NDP and 2021. This is because, between 2011 and 2021, the
PGDS objectives agriculture sector experienced the highest positive
Realising the commitments of the Constitution and growth, with an average rate of 29.1%. At the same
the NDP is by no means an easy task, and evidence time, between 2011 and 2021, the manufacturing
indicates that more needs to be done to meet lofty sector experienced a positive growth rate of 6.7%.
but justified dreams. The first detailed analysis of the Unfortunately, there has been a decline in the num-
“NDP” implementation in KwaZulu-Natal was under- ber of tourist visits to the province, with bed nights
declining at an average annual rate of -7.34% from
taken in 2011 under the guidance of the newly ap- 35.4 million in 2011 to 16.5 million in 2021. This is
pointed Provincial Planning Commission. The appar- worrying, as tourism can be our province’s breadbas-
ent disjuncture in years, namely the official adoption ket with world-class attractions that KwaZulu-Natal
of the NDP in 2012, is because the province’s Provin- has to showcase. On the upside, there is a positive
cial Planning Commission planning model predates correlation between growth in tourism and employ-
the NDP and the National Planning Commission. ment creation, and programmes are now in place that
Nonetheless, the Provincial Growth and Development pays dividends with new and more airlines flying into
Strategy (PGDS) is now aligned with the NDP, a mac- King Shaka International Airport. A sustained revival
ro policy instrument incorporating the Medium-Term of tourism is essential but attainable only if all the rel-
Strategic Framework (MTSF) and government’s five- evant parties work together on a cohesive and cho-
year programme of action. A similar approach was reographed programme.
followed in the 2020 review, which identified bench-
marks, key challenges and interventions. Allied to these indices, according to the Stats SA’s
Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey (GPSJ)
Implementation of education goal - moving to- 2021/22, the experience of crime by households be-
wards 4IR tween the 2020/21 and 2021/22 periods show an up-
One of the key findings of our review was that, on ward trend in four out of six types of crime. This is
a quantitative basis, education and training outputs a crucial variable, especially in the sensitive tourist
have improved in KwaZulu-Natal over the past ten market. One of the challenges undermining positive
years. The number of people without schooling de- outcomes in crime prevention, economic growth and
creased from 2011 to 2021, by an average annual rate addressing poverty and unemployment is the lack of
of 4.91%, while people with “matric only” increased adequate capacity in the state. A lack of institutional
from 1.79 million to 2.59 million. Sadly, those without capacity at a local level has limited the capability of
schooling in KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 24.40% of government to provide infrastructure and services in
the national figure. Our analysis shows poor educa- an efficient and corruption-free manner.

24 SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW | Volume 15. No. 3 of 2023