We are far off from the target of the National Development Plan (NDP)‚ according to the head of the secretariat of the National Planning Commission of SA‚ Tshediso Matona.

Speaking at the Vision 2030 Summit at Emperors Palace on Wednesday‚ Matona said: "The NDP is very ambitious given the current context."

"We cannot achieve this if we stay along this path that we're on‚" he said.

Growth in the economy would fuel the momentum but this is dependent on investment‚ he said. "We can do better going forward‚" said Matona.

The structure of South Africa's economy despite all its strengths and capacity has the tendency to reproduce inequalities‚ he added‚ calling on the private sector to play its part.

"We have nearly R1-trillion of public sector investment planned for the next three years but the public sector also needs to play its part‚" he said.

The goals of the NDP are to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030. This calls for sustained growth of 5.4% and a 6% decrease in unemployment by 2030.

However‚ growth is expected at 1.5% in 2018‚ according to Treasury‚ and unemployment remains uncomfortably high at 26.7%.