LETTER: No need to ask all
It would be unfair to expect the public to assess complex policy proposals
Prof Steven Friedman’s column (Seeking Public Comment Will Just Raise the Usual Noises (https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/columnists/2019-09-04-steven-friedman-why-seeking-public-comment-will-deliver-only-the-usual-noise/), September 4) on finance minister Tito Mboweni’s economic policy proposal seemed to rely on a fundamental misunderstanding of the way modern political systems operate.
Such systems operate by a combination of direct and representative democracy. It is up to the representatives of the people to deliberate and assess complex policy proposals, such as Mboweni’s economic policy paper, which draws upon many of the proposals of the national development plan (NDP) of 2012, and to receive and incorporate in its deliberations the input from civil society, organised interest groups such as business and labour, and concerned citizens...
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