Direct Mandates

Constitutional mandates

The broad mandate of the Department is derived from the Constitution of the RSA, 1996, which regulates government’s duties and responsibilities to the citizens, in particular the promotion of socio-economic rights.

Specific reference needs to be made to Provisions in the Bill of Rights (chapter 2) relating to equality (section 9); human dignity (section 10); freedom of trade, occupation and profession (section 22); and chapter 3 of the Constitution dealing with intergovernmental relations that inform the Department’s work.

There have been no changes to the Constitutional mandates.

Legislative mandates

The following directive commands the mandate of the Department;

National legislation (bills, acts, regulations, charters), of which the following are the most important:

• Constitution of RSA, 1996
• Public Service Act( PSA) and Public Service Regulations(PSR), as amended;
• Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and Treasury Regulations (TR), as amended; and the
• Division of Revenue Act (DoRA).

Relevant line function legislation and regulations includes the following (National and Provincial, e.g. legislation pertaining to small businesses, companies, competition, gambling, liquor, consumer protection, local government, inter-governmental relations, development and planning, other standards and procedures, information, security, human resource management and development, labour, etc., including court decisions).

There have been no changes to the Legislative Mandates that govern the functions of the department. The passing of the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill of 2016, which is introduced to pave way for the National Treasury to allocate funds to urgent and unavoidable service delivery interventions, has not been passed to date. 

Indirect Mandates

National and Provincial Government policies

These include White papers, Green papers, Frameworks, Guidelines, Manuals,  Strategies and Plans, for example: the National Government Programme of Action, the People’s Contract, White Paper of Transformation in the Public Service, State of Nation Address by the President, State of the Province Address by the Premier, National and Provincial Budget speeches, Cabinet resolutions, management decisions endorsed by the Executing Authority, the Northern Cape Innovation Fund Policy, Departmental policies on security, information management, HIV and AIDS etc.

Economic Policy Mandates

a) National Development Plan

The National Development Plan is the long-term socio-economic development plan for the country. The plan has a target of increasing employment by 11 million by 2030. In addition to the employment creation, the plan sets out mechanisms by which to improve the living conditions of citizens as measures by the 14 outcome areas that the government will focus on.

 This is proposed to be achieved by:

• Realising an environment for sustainable employment and inclusive economic growth,
• Promoting employment in labour-absorbing industries,
• Raising exports and competitiveness,
• Strengthening government’s capacity to give leadership to economic development, and
• Mobilising all sectors of society around a national vision.

The Department of Economic Development and Tourism is directly responsible for Chapter 3 (Outcome 4 in the Outcomes Based Approach) of the NDP which focusses on the following amongst others:

• Creating an environment for sustainable employment and economic growth
• Strengthening the capacity of government to implement its economic policies
• Promoting employment in labour absorbing industries
• Promoting exports and competitiveness
• Diversifying the economy etc.

In addition, the Executive Council, according to Resolution No. 022/2015 (04) dated 20^th April 2015, approved that “the Department of Economic Development and Tourism leads Outcome 6, assisted by the Department of Infrastructure and Public Works and the Office of the Premier.”

The five sub-outcomes are:

• Regulation of infrastructure improved.
• Reliable generation, transmission and distribution of energy ensured through SIPs 1, 8, 9 and 10.
• Maintenance, strategic expansion, operational efficiency, capacity and competitiveness of our transport infrastructure ensured.
• Maintenance and supply availability of our bulk water resources infrastructure ensured.
• Expansion, modernisation, access and affordability of our Information and communications infrastructure ensured.

b) Industrial Policy Action Plan

The Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) is aimed at growing the economy and creating about 129 000 jobs in order to reduce unemployment. The aim is to achieve this by preventing industrial decline and supporting the growth and diversification of the South Africa’s manufacturing sector. IPAP is aligned to the National Development Plan (NDP) and also located within the New Growth Path (NGP) framework. The plan is reviewed annually to measure progress on implementation and revise targets.

The Northern Cape supports the implementation of IPAP through the Provincial Manufacturing Strategy and its implementation plan. As a province with mineral wealth there is big opportunity of mineral beneficiation which is one of the pillars of IPAP.

c) New Growth Path

The New Growth Path (NGP) provides bold, imaginative and effective strategies to create the millions of jobs South Africa needs. The aim is to create five million new jobs by 2020 so that unemployment can decrease by 15 per cent. To realise this target, the focus was set to be on areas that have the potential for creating employment on a large scale (what is called “jobs drivers”) and securing strong and sustainable growth in the next decade.

According to the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) the Province has set an annual job creation target of 16 000. The NGP on the other hand has outlined the following targets up to 2020:

Table 1 :Job creation targets for the New Growth Path

The NGP puts special emphasis on new economies i.e. the Green and Knowledge economy. The Northern Cape has the potential of benefiting a lot from these new economies as the province has been identified as the solar hub of the country and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

To date the province have secured about 21 projects from the three respective bid windows of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). The majority of projects are solar energy generation projects, Photovoltaic (PV) and the Customised Sector Programme which includes Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), with a few wind and small hydro projects. These projects will bring substantive greenfields investments into the province resulting in direct and indirect job creation and community upliftment.

Infrastructure is one of the key job drivers identified in the New Growth Path. The South African Government adopted a National Infrastructure Plan in 2012 that intends to transform the economic landscape while simultaneously creating significant numbers of new jobs and to strengthen the delivery of basic services.

The plan identifies 18 Strategic Infrastructure Projects (SIPs). Of the 18 SIPs there are currently six that are of importance to the province namely:

• SIP 3 -     South-Eastern node  and corridor development,
• SIP 5 -     Saldanha – Northern Cape Development Corridor,
• SIP 8 -     Renewable Energy,
• SIP 14 -   Higher Education Infrastructure,
• SIP 15 -   Expanding access to communication technology, and
• SIP 16 -   Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

The full implementation of projects identified within these SIPs will result in more jobs being created in the Province.

Bi-lateral agreements

International, National and local Multi-party Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding concluded with the Province include the following:

• South Africa – China trade agreements;
• Africa – Brazil – India Free Trade Agreement;
• Hunan-Northern Cape Provinces Friendship Agreement;
• Sweden – South Africa city-to-city twinning agreement;
• UNOPS - Department of Economic Affairs’ Memorandum of Understanding;
• TISA – Department of Economic Affairs’ Memorandum of Understanding.

The articulation of the specific mandates derived from these frameworks is found in the strategic and business / performance plans of the different programmes and sub-programmes in the Department.

Medium Term strategic Framework

Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) sets out government priority focus areas for 5 years. The country adopted the National Development Plan (NDP) which is a 20 year development plan, the NGP, IPAP and National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) which are short to medium term plans that are aimed at implementing the NDP.

From these plans Government identified key priority areas to be focused on for a period of 5 years. These priority areas form the MTSF. The MTSF has 14 outcomes of which the Department of Economic Development and Tourism is responsible for Outcome 4 “Decent Employment through inclusive economic growth”.

The draft 2014-19 MTSF Outcome 4 Chapter identifies the following 8 Sub-Outcomes and each has its specific actions, indicators and targets:

1. Productive investment is effectively crowed in through the infrastructure build programme.
2. The productive sectors account for a growing share of production and employment, exports are diversified, African regional development is accelerated, carbon intensity is reduced and the organs of the state improve their alignment in support of employment-creating growth.
3. The elimination of unnecessary regulatory burdens and lower price increases for key inputs and wage goods fosters investment and economic growth.
4. Workers education and skills increasingly meet economic needs.
5. Expanded employment in agriculture.
6. Macroeconomic conditions support employment –creating growth.
7. Reduced workplace conflict and improved collaboration between government, organised business and organised labour.
8. Public employment schemes provide short term relief for the unemployment and build community solidarity and agency.

CHANGES IN THE POLICY ENVIRONEMENT

Operation Phakisa (Hurry Up) was launched by the honourable President Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation Address on 19 July 2014. The Mining leg of Operation Phakisa (a sector-focused initiative to accelerate implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP will identify key constraints to investment and growth of the industry as well as develop a shared vision and growth strategy for the long term development and transformation of the sector. The strategic intent of Operation Phakisa (mining) is to fast-track the contribution made by the mining industry to beneficiation of industrialisation. 

In addition, the Ocean’s Economy has the potential to make an exponential contribution to the GDP through significant job creation. The areas for growth include Marine Transport and Manufacturing, Offshore Oil and Gas exploration, Aquaculture and Oceans’ Governance and the Marine Protection Services.