Cabinet of the fifth administration hosts its final meeting

On Wednesday, the national executive held its last cabinet meeting in Pretoria ahead of the 8 May national and provincial elections. Although it was the last Cabinet meeting, the executive will remain accountable until the elections.

Cabinet used the chance to approve several frameworks that will reportedly take the country forward. Among these frameworks were:

Fourth Industrial Revolution

The first one was the approval of the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), which will advise government on strategies and policies to respond to new technological developments occasioned by digitisation.

National Drug Master Plan

The National Drug Master Plan (NDMP) 2013-2018 has been hailed as a demonstration of government’s continued commitment to fight the use and effects of drugs within communities around the country.

The evaluation proposes a number of interventions such as harmonising the strategies of the departments, as well as the establishment of an independent, fully funded structure to drive substance abuse prevention programmes in communities, especially amongst the youth.

Cabinet approved this intervention along with the setting up of an Anti-Drug Council, structured similarly to the South African National AIDS Council, to drive the fight against drug addiction.

Gender mainstreaming

Another key decision taken was the approval of the Framework on Gender Responsive Planning, Budgeting, Monitoring Evaluation and Audit.

The framework places gender mainstreaming at the centre of public policy by putting forward a strategy and implementation plan towards gender responsiveness of existing planning, budgeting, monitoring, evaluation and auditing systems.

National coordination mechanism

In line with the National Development Plan, which seeks to promote sustainable development by tackling regional, continental and global challenges, Cabinet also approved the establishment of a national coordinating mechanism to coordinate the sustainable development agendas of the UN, AU and the SADC.

This national coordination mechanism will serve as a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder process to facilitate consultations and coordination within and outside government on South Africa’s international sustainable development commitments. This will be overseen by an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC), driven from the centre of government.

Evaluation reports approved

A number of evaluation reports that were commissioned through the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) were also approved.

These include the evaluation of Government Business Incentives which among others recommend the establishment of an intergovernmental incentive co-ordination committee which will address the overlaps and complementaries in various business incentives. The last one was the evaluation of the Integrated Strategy on the Promotion of Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprises proposes improvement plan includes improvement, coordination and rationalisation across all spheres of government and strengthen institutional governance and oversight.

Lastly, cabinet also expressed its appreciation to Parliament, the Judiciary as well as South Africa’s partners in the SADC, African Union, BRICS, Group of 20, United Nations and other formations, for standing by South Africa to improve conditions in the country.

READ NEXT: The big announcements made in the lead-up to 2019 elections so far

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.