MTDP a vision that lacks necessary steps to bring it to life, says Mbeki
Mbeki, speaking to students at UNISA on Friday, said answers to concerns about an economic growth plan should have been reflected in the MTDP.
FILE: Fomer President Thabo Mbeki addressed students at the University of South Africa (UNISA) on 4 September 2024. Picture: @MbekiSchool/X
JOHANNESBURG - Former President Thabo Mbeki said the Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP), much like its predecessor, the National Development Plan, is a vision that lacks the necessary steps to bring it to life.
Mbeki, speaking to students at the University of South Africa (UNISA) on Friday, said answers to concerns about an economic growth plan should have been reflected in the MTDP.
The former president said he fears the country will end up without a government approach and a realistic economic growth development plan.
“Whether the government of national unity thinks the way I do, I don’t know. But I am saying, as a country, we need to get back to a situation where we do actual planning about the economic future and not depend on visions which we think will implement themselves. Visions don’t. They are necessary but don’t implement themselves.”
Taking a swipe at the Government of National Unity (GNU), Mbeki told students at the gathering that he believed the MTDP was put to tender, with the highest bidder being given the task of crafting crucial plans for the country’s future.
He once again slammed government over the abandoned 2020 social compact.
Mbeki said government, business, and other social partners must return to the national consensus discussions.
“I think that’s where we need to go back to. I think the GNU needs to say there’s that process to try and elaborate a social compact, which for some reason got abandoned somewhere, yet a lot of preparatory work had been done. Why don’t we go back to that in order to give substance to the MTDP, substance which does not exist in the current plan?”