The citizens have their say

Almost 9000 comments were logged during National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel's 72-hour digital "jam" about the future of South Africa. His office called it the biggest online conversation ever in Africa.

There had been 10300 visits to the website by the time the debate closed on Saturday.

Manuel's National Planning Commission has contracted IBM to analyse the debate, opinions from which will be used in the commission's first report to the cabinet next month. The debate could help determine a national vision and elements of government policy over the next 20 years.

Manuel, his deputy chairman, Cyril Ramaphosa, and other commission members responded to ideas from a mainly young online audience who tackled issues such as jobs, crime, leadership, economic growth and black economic empowerment.

Ramaphosa defended the official policy of BEE but conceded that it had produced mixed results.

"As BEE deals were being struck and we did not see the poverty and inequality of our people being reduced we said that BEE deals should be broad-based. This was then legislated through the BBBEE Act. Yet, again, we did not see massive benefit flowing to our people," he wrote.

Manuel picked up on a discussion about leadership: "While I think that we should not emphasise the 'big man' notion of leadership, we should advance a question of what characteristics we'd like to see in leaders or leadership collectives."

Dorothy Diedericks of Pretoria responded: "In my opinion, a leader is not only someone who is good, but who does good and who takes care of his people."

Teresa Williams, of Cape Town, said she wanted leaders who were "not just reasonably smart but impressively smart. With the best will in the world, people who are not terribly clever are not in a position to make really good decisions."

Thandiwe Nontenja, of Johannesburg, echoed a common concern about the fight against crime.

"It is pointless for the police to arrest criminals only [for them] to be released on bail by the courts. The culprits usually go back and intimidate the victims. The victims have less rights than criminals."

Joel Netshitenzhe, a member of the commission who was the chief strategist in Thabo Mbeki's cabinet, said growing the economy was the single greatest challenge.

"Clearly, we cannot continue along the current trajectory if indeed we have rapidly to deal with the challenges of poverty and unemployment," he wrote.

Themba Zunga, of Johannesburg, responded: "We have all seen that markets left operating by themselves leads to failure and should be avoided. Having said that, overzealous and uncoordinated government intervention in the economy can also result in undesirable consequences. So, a well-planned and coordinated middle ground is preferable."

Khaya Tyatya of Buffalo City said the regulation of the labour markets needed attention.

"To grow an economy, industry has to be productive and input costs need to be minimised. How do we expect the productive capacity of industry to increase if workers demand double-digit increases that are in no way linked to productivity?" he asked.

Loyiso Boyce, of Tshwane, wanted to see new industries opened up: "Why play catch up in existing industries when we can create new ones and set the agenda?"

Wrapping up the economic debate, Netshitenzhe said there appeared to be a broad consensus on many important issues, including the need to focus on the poor.