Five years since adopting the National Development Plan (NDP), the prospects of achieving even its basic targets appear to be increasingly remote, given the depressing growth outlook confirmed by Finance Minister Gigaba in his maiden medium-term budget policy statement. "Five years on from the adoption of the NDP Vision 2030, the fast growth that will enable us to make substantial progress in eliminating unemployment, poverty and inequality remains elusive. We must find the wisdom, the humility and perspective to ask how must we remake ourselves in order to build the SA we want," Gigaba said. This is perhaps an appropriate time to reflect rationally on why we have failed to make positive progress on Vision 2030. A tempting default position would be look to externalities to justify our persistent policy failures, but this would be disingenuous and self-defeating. What is required is an honest self-assessment under properly managed engagement conditions by all stakeholders to agree, f...

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