House Chair, I think this fiscal framework is a very sobering assessment because it demonstrates that the ANC has completely given up on fiscal responsibility and that they happily want to lead South Africa down the fiscal abyss. And I have a lot of sympathy for the Finance Minister because imagine having to tell your Cabinet colleagues, meeting after meeting, no you can't; only to be overridden time after time again; and being forced to throw money down bottomless pits.
In the last year the deficit was blown from a projected 4% to 6,3% to pay for state-owned enterprises that the ANC themselves have looted, mismanaged and brought to the brink of collapse. [Applause.] What is worse is that the moneys transferred to Eskom R23 billion, initially last year, and then a further R26 billion, was transferred without any preconditions. Only now has National Treasury produced draft conditions for how this money should be spent. It doesn't matter; you've created moral hazards by giving it over to Eskom; so it doesn't matter how badly how you manage or mismanage things, you have some money.
So, basically, the ANC has decided that their decade of rampant theft must have no consequences and the message the ANC is sending by blowing the deficit is this: the citizens, not the state capturers, will pay. And this does not surprise me considering the looters and capturers are all members of the ANC as well.
This is why the DA is having to table a Fiscal Responsibility Bill to rain- in these free spenders.
The fiscal framework this year will accelerate the deficit to 6,8% and debt service costs will consume over 15% of all government spending.
By 2022 the government will spend more on debt than it does on healthcare; and this is the same lot that want us to trust them with the National Health Insurance, NHI.
With an imminent ratings downgrade on the card, we can assume that debt servicing costs will continue to soar. And the state has consistently missed its revenue targets year in and year out.
Under the stewardship of President Ramaphosa the economy has registered negative growth in five quarters out of the nine so far that he has been in charge; this is the country's worst economic performance since 1945. And we find ourselves in a technical recession for the second time in less than a year; and our economy is not projected to grow beyond 0.8% in the foreseeable future. Brought to you by the ANC.
Government spending should actually prioritize human development and public services; but instead the budget throws money at failing SOEs such as Eskom, SA Airways, SAA and Passenger Rail Agency of SA, PRASA. So, instead of acting as an economic multiplier, government spending has become a bottomless pit of moral hazards.
The proposals for government to live within its means at the present moment are highly uncertain and they depend on agreements with unions and growth projections that are both not likely to be met.
The realty of our country is simple; the citizens of South Africa cannot afford to keep paying for ANC ideological experiments and populist pipe dreams; we cannot afford their ideology. The citizens of South Africa cannot afford to keep subsidizing the enemies of growth that lurk within the ANC and its allies. The public purse cannot continue to fund enrichment schemes for the ANC elite over the development of ordinary people.
The ANC has a habit of exploring every single economic cul-de- sac instead of choosing the highway of growth; and right now they are going down the dead end road of populism. The time has come for every sensible ANC member to stare down the enemies of growth in their own party and choose the path of economic liberalization.
In the DA they will find a willing partner should they choose this path, should they choose the right thing and should they choose growth. But if they keep putting off the hard choices year after year, they will push 50 million people down the abyss of a populist dystopia. The choice is yours. [Applause.]