Is my time correct? It says I only got 18 seconds. Okay, wonderful.
Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers, hon members and fellow South Africans. South Africa is on the brink of total economic collapse. The Gross Domestic Product, GDP, figures released for the first quarter of 2019 show that the South African economy has contracted by 3,2%; its worst performance in 10 years.
The most depressing statistic is the fact that the fastest growing expenditure item in the budget is debt servicing costs, with the country spending R182,2 billion in fiscal 2019 and that will rise to R247 billion by 2022. In fact, according to the hon Tito Mboweni South Africa is borrowing about R1,2 billion a day, assuming that we don't borrow money on the weekend.
Now, my friends in the ANC have an interesting approach. Their last approach to economic development was the Seven Point Plan in former President Jacob Zuma's Nine Point Plan. We know the former President wasn't very good with numbers.
So, let's hope that the new Eight Point Plan under President Ramaphosa will yield more fruit.
And my friends from the EFF have a very interesting theory on personal economic development. They believe that stems from
donations from cigarette smugglers, loans from VBS Mutual Bank and of course, the odd conversation with white monopoly in Stellenbosch. That's their idea of economic development. [Interjections.]
Who's going to take me on? Come on!