President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked the country’s National Planning Commission (NPC) to focus on giving advice on key developmental priorities linked to food security, water security, energy choices, social cohesion and structural reform.

The commission said the instruction was given after the president’s announcement that he has tasked labour, business and government to finalise a ‘new consensus’ for reigniting a recovery plan and to rethink the underperforming SA Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan through a “comprehensive social compact”...