16 January 2010

National Planning Commission: nominations needed without delay

On-line Nominations to the National Planning Commission






The above is a facsimile of the Presidency’s National Planning Commission nomination form. Click here to go direct to the form online.





The Revised Green Paper on the National Planning Commission was published on 15 January 2010. It includes an invitation to nominate for the members of the Commission (before 10 February 2010). Click here to read the new Green Paper in HTML, or here to download the original PDF version from the Presidency web site.


Anyone may nominate, and anyone may be nominated, to the NPC. The following information is needed: 




  • Title, Name, Surname, E-mail address, Contact number, Race, Gender, Disability (yes/no), Employer and Fields of expertise of the nominee
  • Professional qualifications, Employment history, Sample of publication and CV (file, for attachment) of the nominee
  • Details of the nominating person/organisation (“Your Persons Details”). Individuals may also nominate themselves.
Time is short. The deadline is 10 February 2010.

Tactically, no organisations’ interests are served by restricting the number of their nominations. The 2009 nomination process for the new SABC Board showed that the successful tactic is to nominate as many suitable candidates as possible. There were 235 nominations then, and the direct consequence of this great public demonstration of national concern and interest was an SABC Board that began its term with authority, credibility and self-confidence.


What kind of people should be nominated?

There is no requirement for celebrity “analysts” or media pundits on the National Planning Commission.

The bourgeoisie will have their share of nominees, both from inside and from outside the ANC. That is unavoidable, and even desirable. These bourgeois nominees will no doubt include a sufficient quota of “professors”.

So above all, the country needs a qualitatively strong, and a good large number, of tried and tested working-class cadres among the nominees, put forward without any hesitation.

The best examples of this kind of cadre that spring to mind are the past and present Provincial Secretaries of the SACP and COSATU, and their peers in the labour movement. These are decisive, realistic men and women who have shown leadership at the tough coalface of development for many years past in this country.

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” 

That much has not changed, and will not change until the class division of society has been done away with.


Development is class struggle.

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