NPC: decision to bypass white paper negates best democratic practice

As part of the ANC government's drive to centralise power and control in the hands of the executive, at the expense of best democratic practice, the Minister of National Planning Trevor Manuel today announced that there will be no white paper on the proposed National Planning Commission. The significance of this development, which was subtly let slip at today's press conference while attention was drawn to the call for nominations to the Commission, cannot be underestimated. A white paper is absolutely critical to definitively and coherently define the powers of the proposed Commission. Without it, this critical institution will be built on nothing more than ambiguities, which in themselves are deeply problematic, and which lack the specificity and detail necessary to understand where its power begins and ends. And, more importantly, what checks and balances will limit its power.

Throughout the hearings held by the ad hoc committee on the National Planning Commission the white paper process, despite calls for this process by some members of the committee, was dismissed as a procedural annoyance which is to fundamentally misrepresent its critical purpose. In the ad hoc committee's final report to Parliament it recommended that a position be adopted by the Minister on whether a white paper was necessary. Therefore the onus to uphold sound democratic practice was put squarely on Minister Manuel's shoulders. Today, he failed that test.

In a revised addition of the green paper it states: "Given that there will be a degree of ‘learning and doing' in the establishment of the Commission and in the development of  a vision and long term strategic plan, it is proposed that government chooses not to turn the green paper into a white paper. Instead, it was agreed that a Revised Green Paper be tabled in Cabinet on 2 December for consideration and public release."

In other words the work of the ad hoc committee and its engagement with the public will be bypassed in the sense that cabinet, and not Parliament will now determine the final nature of the Commission. And the depth and breadth of its powers will be allowed to generate organically. This is not how to legislate.  If the vague and general intimations contained in the green paper are anything to go by the National Planning Commission has the potential to run as a parallel authority to the executive without the proper checks and balances and without defined parameters.

It is encouraging that the revised version of the green paper has removed many of the contentious suggestions held in the previous edition. For example, the previous version stated that the National Planning Commission can "authoritatively and forcefully drive planning, monitoring and evaluation and institutional improvements". However, the revised version has not replaced these with a proper explanation of the particular powers, and their removal has only served to make the green paper vaguer and less specific. In other words if those previous suggestions were an indication of government's intent there are currently no provisions which suggest that intent no longer holds true.

The Democratic Alliance fully supports planning, any government needs to envision and plot its programme of action in a careful and coordinated fashion. And any institution that seeks to do this enjoys our full support. But the National Planning Commission is an invention of the ANC, a party, single mindedly focused on centralising control and, through cadre deployment controlling "all levers of power" in the state. Its ambitions in this regard often overflow into public life. Against this background the precise nature, particular powers and checks and balances that would define a National Planning Commission must be clearly and specifically stated. The DA strongly opposes the bypassing of a white paper process.

Statement issued by Athol Trollip MP, Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader, January 15 2010

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