this engagement has been a most remarkable journey of learning south africans representing a wide spectrum of backgrounds and interests have been remarkably generous in their consultation with the national planning commission they are generous in their overall support for the work of the commission generous in their support for the observations in the diagnostic document and the recommendations proposed in the plan but they are also generous in their criticism of both the style and content of the work of the commission and exceedingly generous in sharing their proposals for alternatives we have had single submissions of over one thousand five hundred pages for instance this remarkable exercise in democratic engagement