Hon Chairperson, hon Deputy President, the chairperson of the committee, Mr Mufamadi, and members of the committee on both sides of the House, thank you for the various contributions. Happy birthday, Mr Mufamadi - I don't know whether it would be protocol to sing "Happy Birthday", but if the Chairperson would allow it, I am sure the opposition would lead it! At the outset, let me reiterate the foundations of the Budget. Firstly, we were going to ensure fiscal sustainability. We are not running a reckless ship, and I think it would be wrong, both factually and otherwise, if, in the search for votes in the coming elections, we started misrepresenting the facts.
Secondly, we tried to get the balance right between supporting the social wage, meaning housing, education, public transport and social grants, on the one hand, and support for the economy on the other. Details are in the Budget Review and in the Budget Speech. If you want page references to help you, we will certainly help you with that as well.
Thirdly, notwithstanding all of these constraints that we live under, we attempted to gradually still continue with fiscal consolidation. One of the hon members raised this particular question, about whether we are consolidating adequately or not. Our approach is slightly different to what some of us might actually want, which is a drastic cut. Mr Kwankwa, ours is a more gradual approach on this particular question.
Fourthly, in addition to that, we agreed as government that we would have an expenditure ceiling, and we are disciplined enough in the ANC to work within the expenditure ceiling and do whatever we have to do in that regard.
Fifthly, we are intent upon implementing the National Development Plan. A number of hon members made reference to whether we are implementing it or not. I want to refer them to P 4 of the Budget Review. There is a nice long list of projects there, which states in a very concrete way, firstly, that these are the projects, and, secondly, we are already funding them, or we intend funding them over the next three years.
Questions were raised about whether cost containment measures on catering, consultants, and so on, are working. In the Budget Review, on P 35, the first trends, which in each of these key areas begin to show a downward movement, are already there. There might be aberrations, where people buy expensive cars, but they are individuals we are talking about, who, in their own right, should be thinking more carefully about some of these issues, rather than giving in to their own preferences. Overall, however, in gross terms, government is moving in the right direction.
The announcements we made in relation to the Chief Procurement Office and the centralised purchasing that we will do, or the interventions that we will undertake in big purchase items in the state, from this point onwards, in order to ensure that we get value for money, is a further reassurance to South Africans that we are, indeed, spending their money in a responsible way.
The hon Mufamadi laid out very carefully the kind of global context that we operate in and also set right many of the factual issues that have arisen for party-political purposes from my left. The hon Harris is very gracious in admitting that there are some elements of the Budget that meet with his approval and approval elsewhere. However, he then goes radically wrong. He goes wrong, because he ends on the note that the Budget is too conservative. I didn't realise that the platform of the DA had suddenly shifted to radicalism of one sort or another.
There are factual issues that he needs to get right, however. He says that in my speech I made reference to the fact that we are better off today than we were under apartheid. Actually, I didn't. Very carefully. If you look at pp 11 and 12 of the speech, you will see that I talk about the last five years of this administration, the amount of money we spent, the kind of delivery that we undertook and the kind of delivery we intend to undertake over the next three years. So, again, facts can be twisted in order to get marginal votes in a desperate situation.
He then makes reference to the global crisis, and this is something that, as the hon Luyenge pointed out, is his favourite sport: Why aren't we doing better than x, y and z? He might want to read the latest Financial Times and The Economist, with reference to Chile, a country that has done extremely well in the past, but, like all countries, particularly emerging markets, finds itself in a spot of difficulty at the moment. There are street protests in those countries, from the middle classes, on issues of free education, and so on. So, let's not use these examples opportunistically and mislead the public into believing that all is rosy.
In fact, emerging markets/developing countries are going to face a very tough time. Globally, the developed countries are deliberately propagating a very negative narrative about emerging markets. If we don't get our act together, regardless of party-political affiliations, and begin to defend our own turf and promote ourselves across the globe, we are going to play into very difficult geopolitical agendas around us. However, I hope that there are sensible people on all sides who will undertake that. He says that we don't talk about reform, but again, in the Budget Speech on P 4, and elsewhere in the Budget Review, we say it very clearly. As the recent World Bank report on exports from South Africa indicates, 90% of our exports take place from 5% of companies in South Africa. That is an untenable amount of concentration in our economy. Even if we take commodities out of that equation, around 87% of exports from South Africa still come from 5% of companies in South Africa.
So, clearly, this is not a party-political issue. It is about ensuring that our economy widens its base, and that there are more medium-sized companies that are allowed to grow, that they become competitive across the global stage and that they are able to export and earn us the important income that will to attend to the other issue that the hon Kwankwa referred to, which is the current account deficit. We need to export more. We need to earn more dividends, as South African firms, in order for us to change that current account deficit. In the meantime, the currency is going to play the buffering role that it currently is.
The hon Harris also makes reference to the NDP and our intention to implement or not. Once again, I refer him to P 4 of the Budget Review. He then makes reference to our deficit being arrived at in terms of 4% in the next year merely because the provinces are underspending. That, again, is a misrepresentation of the facts. There is extra revenue coming in, both in tax terms and in nontax terms, that the state is actually obtaining. This is in addition to the fact that we actually implemented the expenditure ceiling that I made reference to earlier on.
In regard to infrastructure spending, the government said a long time ago that we wanted infrastructure spending to be beyond 10%, if we could help it, and we want to head in that particular direction as we make fiscal space available for ourselves, as the hon Singh pointed out as well.
There is a fundamental contradiction in the DA's argument. On the one hand, they want more fiscal discipline and a narrower deficit. On the other hand, they want a more expensive Budget and more expenditure. I do not know what kind of budgeting this is that can narrow your deficit and still give you more expenditure without there being growth in either the economy or on the revenue side of the equation.
However, we have some important things happening in respect of the private sector. Firstly, South African firms have been doubling their investment in Africa every five years for the last five years; and, secondly, exports from South Africa to Africa now constitute 28%, largely of our manufactured exports, both of which are extremely important developments in terms of the kind of agility that some of our firms have been able to display. The key, of course, is still to continue to expand our economic base so that we can move further.
We agree with the hon Singh on wasteful expenditure. We have always said that we need to spend taxpayers' money carefully. That is going to be a long battle, which, even in the next and following administrations, will have to be pursued. We certainly agree that we need to create more fiscal space for ourselves as a country.
The hon Kwankwa is right. We are working very hard at creating the right kind of investment climate in this country. There are lots of references to incentives, to the special economic zones, and to other measures that the Department of Trade and Industry and others have in place to, in fact, make South Africa more hospitable as far as investment is concerned.
The hon Alberts says we must be willing to talk to them in order to get the e-tolls issue right. We have been willing to talk for a long time. We are not the ones who have been running to the courts in order to delay and compound this particular problem. So, you are welcome to come for a cup of tea while it's free, hon Alberts, any time you actually want to.
I want to thank the hon Swart for his support and I once again thank my colleagues in Cabinet and all of the members of the standing committee from all of the parties. I certainly wish them well in the elections as we head towards an ANC victory. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.