Chairperson and hon Deputy President, today we have reached the culmination of a process that began when the then Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, tabled the Budget and Appropriation Bill in February. The ACDP then indicated its broad support, joining most economic commentators in commending the Minister for a prudent and balanced Budget, and for not pandering to populism, particularly in the run-up to the election.
We know the economic outlook has changed significantly since then. We have a new Minister and the economy has experienced its first contraction since the 2009 financial crisis - 0,6% in the first quarter. The risk to the financial outlook, including domestic uncertainty, remains, mainly due to strikes in the manufacturing and mining sectors. Of course, we still have the public sector wage negotiations that lie ahead.
The ACDP has previously expressed its concerns about the budget deficit, the projected state debt stock and spiralling debt service costs. Do we as Members of Parliament know how much R1,5 trillion is? How long would it take you to spend a trillion rand? That is the appropriation we are going to approve today. If you spend R1 per second, it will take you 32 years to spend R1 billion. This is a thousand times that. It would take you 32 000 years to spend R1 trillion. So we need to understand the enormity of what we are busy with, and I share the concerns of other speakers about our debt service costs.
Minister Nene, you are faced with many challenges and a changed environment, as indicated in your Budget Vote on the National Treasury. We welcome your commitment to stabilising the growth of public debt over the medium term and to rebuild that fiscal space - again, referring to the intergenerational equity that other speakers referred to. Whether you are able to achieve this is, of course, the challenge, as pointed out by various speakers, given the various political pressures from various quarters and the new pieces of legislation and Bills that are sought to be passed. It is also premised on economic growth reaching targeted levels, which was initially 2,7%, but which has now been significantly revised downwards; that is a concern. Of course, we need to address wasteful expenditure and we need a greater commitment to address the R30 billion per year which is lost through state procurement fraud.
We look forward to your first medium-term budget policy later this year, but you are indeed faced with a challenging environment with a deeply unsettled labour environment, an NDP that is basically still in its starting blocks and strained public finances. Much wisdom is required, but we wish you well and we will support this Appropriation Bill.
However, we must ensure value for our money. Hon Minister, maybe you should require all Treasury officials to sing the song, "Money is too tight to mention", and maybe you will get support from the EFF, because we all know who sang that song - it was Simply Red. I thank you. [Laughter.] [Applause.]