South Africa’s Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP) for the five-year period to 2029 will incorporate the 3% GDP growth target announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address (SoNA).

In a briefing after the SoNA, Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Maropene Ramokgopa said the MTDP had been thoroughly canvassed among Government of National Unity (GNU) participants and was scheduled to be approved by Cabinet on February 26.

The MTDP would anchor departmental programmes of action from the start of the new fiscal year on April 1 and had been aligned to the GNU’s apex priorities for the seventh administration of growth and job creation, poverty reduction and the building of a capable State.

The growth target, which would represent a significant improvement on the country’s recent GDP performance and even the National Treasury’s growth outlook, had been informed by a modelling of the growth upside from the economic reforms under way in energy and logistics.

Departments were currently aligning their annual performance plans with the SoNA and the MTDP and the Budget would progressively reflect the strategic priorities contained in the MTDP, starting with the February 19 Budget.

It had also been agreed that the Budgets of the seventh administration would not be subjected to any new fiscal rule on expenditure as had initially been considered. This, so as to ensure that the National Treasury was not constrained in its ability to respond to unforeseen developments or economic shocks.

It was also confirmed that the MTDP would provide a framework for the implementation of a National Health Insurance (NHI), over which GNU parties had expressed ongoing differences.

Amid conflicting messages over how the GNU could  go about implementing the NHI, Ramokgopa said the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation had undertaken separate negotiations on the NHI with various individuals and departments in the run up to the drafting of the MTDP.

She also announced that Ministerial Advisory Committees on health technologies, health-care benefits, and an accreditation framework for health-service providers would be set up in preparation for the NHI.

These committees, she said, could include representatives from outside of government, including medical aid schemes.