 Manuel and Patel 'share same vision' There will not be much disagreement between the vision statement 2030 of National Planning Commission and the National Growth Path (NGP) of economic development minister Ebrahim Patel. Trevor Manuel, minister in charge of the NPC, said on Friday his commission's vision statement, of which a draft will be published in November, will not contain much contradiction to the NGP, which was released last November. "The commission's mandate is to take the long view to 2030," he said. "Between now and 2030 there are some adjustments that can be made in terms of emphasis, but there will not be much disagreement (between the vision statement and the NGP)." Since Manuel and Patel were appointed to their current positions by President Jacob Zuma two years ago, there has been some speculation on which of the two will make the decisions on the economy's policy direction and whether their plans for the economy will differ substantially. DA MP Dion George welcomed the "candid outcome" of the commission's work in parliament on Thursday, but said the fundamental question is how its work would interface with the NGP. The diagnostic report on the economy launched by Manuel on Thursday identifies job creation as a key requirement in the economy, like the NGP with its target to create five million jobs by 2020. "If you look at the NGP and data release by Mike Schüssler this week, the issue that binds us is the need to create more employment. And lots of that needs to be for lower-skilled people," Manuel said. Schüssler, an economist at Economists.co.za, compiled a report that trade union Uasa released this week. It says SA has created about 350000 new jobs in the last 11 years to March 2011. The report identifies nine key challenges standing in the way of eliminating poverty and reducing inequality. Manuel said two main issues are the fact that the education system for the majority of South Africans is sub-optimal and that too few South Africans work. "If we fail to deal with that, we cannot do the other things," he said. The commission's report comes almost a year after the commission was appointed, which fuelled speculation that Patel is calling the policy shots. "Some ministers are shocked that we have not started with ministerial discussions," Manuel said. "We will talk to the ministers and departments now as we go forward, but we do not want blockages or hurdles created," he said, adding that the method followed by the commission in drafting the diagnostic report and vision statement was consultative and open. "This has been under wraps as we were developing it, but we have tested ideas. From our vantage point these are our observations. Let's talk about it." Analysts agreed that the essence of strategies drawn up by the teams of Manuel and Patel will not differ substantially. "Manuel might have a more market-directed vision of how to create jobs, while Patel's vision is more interventionist," said Piet Croucamp, a lecturer at the department of politics at the University of Johannesburg. "The two do not necessarily have to be irreconcilable. It is possible to have a combination of the two visions in SA. Given our employment rate, you have to accept government will have to have some kind of involvement to encourage employment in certain sectors. "If (Manuel and Patel) co-operate there will be a better chance (for success) than if the two are seen as opposing ideologies." Croucamp said a logical consequence of collective government would have been if Patel had joined Manuel this week at the launch of the report. Aubrey Matshiqi, a political analyst and research associate at the Centre for Policy Studies, said: "The question is who should be responsible for that co-ordination between the department of economic development, the treasury and the commission, bearing in mind that the commission is not a government department." Matshiqi said regardless of whether there was tension between Manuel and Patel, treasury still seems to be calling the shots. From: http://www.businesslive.co.za/Feeds/businesstimes/2011/06/11/manuel-and-patel-share-same-vision
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