National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel has identified corruption as the biggest threat to the National Development Plan (NDP).
Manuel said the NDP had been accepted by everyone from President Jacob Zuma to the broad public as an exciting roadmap to South Africa's future, the Dispatch Online reported.
However, he said its implementation started in the engine room, "the machinery of the state", which was being jammed by "fundamentals".
The first of these was public servants who did business with the state.
Other problems were corruption in supply chain management and unionised teachers not being held accountable for their under-performance.
Speaking at the Eastern Cape annual economics symposium, Manuel reportedly said public servants who were accused of stealing or abusing their positions should be suspended without pay.
According to the Dispatch Online, he said this had to start with the eight policemen who were accused of dragging Mozambican taxi driver Mido Macia behind a police van. Macia died later in a police holding cell.
"We cannot build a national plan without support from all South Africans, which is why we need the national conversation," Manuel was quoted as saying.