"WE, the people of South Africa, have journeyed far since the long lines of our first democratic elections on April 27 1994, when we elected a government for us all. We began to tell a new story then. We have lived and renewed that story along the way.

"WE, the people of South Africa, have journeyed far since the long lines of our first democratic elections on April 27 1994, when we elected a government for us all. We began to tell a new story then. We have lived and renewed that story along the way.

"Now, in 2030, we live in a country we have remade. We have created a home where everyone feels free yet bound to others, where everyone embraces their full potential. We are proud to be a community that cares."

So begins the vision statement of the National Development Plan adopted by the government last year.

For a plan of such magnitude it deserved better than the scant attention it received in President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation Address last week.

This could be an indication that Zuma does not think much of it.

This would be illogical, though, given the fact that he set up the commission that drafted the plan and later accepted it as his government's over-arching policy .

Given the demands the plan places on the government - to be corrupt-free, accountable and responsive - Zuma might have realised the long distance he and his administration might have to travel to be in sync with its vision.

Zuma has six more years to govern - assuming the ruling party wins the elections next year and he does not experience his "Eight Days in September" in the middle of his second term.

By the end of his second term there will be 11 years left before the plan can be declared a success or failure.

But Zuma must be applauded for accepting it. It sets out the parameters against which the conduct of his own government and those of citizens should be judged.

Some people might object to some of the issues in the plan and they are perfectly entitled to critique it because it is not a godly invention beyond criticism.

But the plan's vision statement is so well crafted and so all-encompassing that all South Africans of different ideological persuasions should readily embrace it.

It is the most important far-sighted document after the country's Constitution.

The vision statement emphasises the importance of honesty among all citizens, including those in government.

"We all assist the institutions we have creatively designed to meet our varied needs; we reach out across communities to strengthen our resolve to live with honesty, to set against corruption and dehumanising actions."

It also refers to the importance of selflessness among those elected to govern.

"We know that those to whom we have given the privilege of governing our land do so on our behalf and for the benefit of all people."

These are just excerpts of a beautiful, well-written vision, that should be read by all South Africans.

I believe it should be prescribed as a compulsory song, poem or declaration in all schools.

Politicians at all levels of government, the opposition and those who are busy creating political platforms should regularly quote from parts of the vision.

This should be done not for mere performance or point-scoring typical of short-sighted politicians, but for the internalisation of the deep messages inherent in the vision.

Only those born in Jupiter would refuse to associate themselves with this positive vision.

But why should it take the next 17 years to realise it?

Why should we wait for 2030 to declare that we feel free and yet bound by other fellow citizens?

Does it have to take that long for us to declare that we have realised our full potential?

Does being honest and reaching across to other communities need to be processed for that long before it becomes a reality?

Why must strengthening our resolve against corruption have to take that long?

Why can't those who govern acknowledge now they are in a positions of power because of the privilege accorded them by the citizens? Do citizens need 17 years to understand that those in power should be beholden to public interest and that they are not entitled to their positions?

I do not mean to suggest that the National Development Plan expects that the beautiful things contained in its vision should wait. What our country will be in 2030 entirely depends on what all of us, individually and collectively, do on a daily basis.

So we have to ask questions: Do the actions of the government leaders in the R200-million Nkandla project, for example, contribute to this beautiful vision or does it rubbish it?

Does Nkandla signify a government that acknowledges that those in power serve by accorded privilege, not by right?

We have to ask whether the ANC's elevation of a disgraced politician, Humphrey Mmemezi, to its highest decision-making body and keeping him as a member of Gauteng provincial legislature is aimed at helping the party to realise the vision set out in the National Development Plan.

Citizens must also do some introspection. For example, to what extent does destruction of public property advance the ideals of the National Development Plan?

In the final analysis every decision, action (or inaction) by citizens, business and government will decide what we, as a nation, will say about ourselves in 2030. Are we going to say we have remade our country for better or for worse?