Speaker, the MTBPS we are debating today is about sustainable public finances and national development. Building on the Budget that was tabled at the beginning of the year, it gives further expression to our efforts to implement the NDP. Our plan articulates the central priorities of public policy, which is to eliminate poverty and to reduce inequality with a focus on lowering the cost of living and doing business, to increase exports, to create more jobs and to make economic growth more inclusive. At the same time, our MTBPS recognises the increasingly limited fiscal space, to which some members have alluded, and reinforces our commitment to an expenditure ceiling. It provides a clear path towards debt stabilisation and our efforts to curb waste.
The budget framework that we tabled for the next three years reflects the goals of the NDP, particularly as it relates to reducing economic constraints and improving state efficiency.
A number of members have made statements. It is indeed puzzling that some members, whilst there are positive stories about our country, choose the negative ones when they read - and they read them quite selectively.
Hon member Koornhof from Cope quoted Mr Laubscher, and hemade a comparison. I don't know why he did not go on to compare this with the latest Goldman Sachs report. That report, as the chairperson of the committee indicated earlier, refers to a number of positives.
It says that this South Africa is not the same South Africa we lived in prior to 1994. It refers to a South Africa where social security has been extended to the broader majority of South Africans. It mentions a South Africa that has extended housing opportunities to more than three million households, and a South Africa whose economic growth has trebled since 1993. It points to employment numbers that have increased by 3,5% even though the labour force has increased. It discusses BEE empowerment, which the hon Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries thinks is a crime. It is not a crime to empower black people in this country, because it was not a crime before to legislate against the employment of our people. [Applause.]
Hon Koornhof als talked about 2008 as being a bad time. Indeed, it was a bad time, but what is important is how South Africa acquitted itself during 2008 and after the crisis. The comparison with Brazil is quite puzzling to me. He also makes a comparison regarding our attitude towards Europe - which he calls "the European connection" - as though it is wrong for us to belong to Brics. Let me ... [Interjections.] That's what you implied.
Let me give you some statistics that will help you understand why the focus is where we are. Prior to the global financial crisis in 2008-09, 33% of South Africa's manufactured exports went to Europe. That has now fallen to 21%. This is not South Africa's choice. The European Union has registered negative growth for five years. The EU's economy has shrunk year after year for half a decade, as I correctly pointed out. We could not, therefore, expect the union to buy more of our exports when its income had fallen. This has nothing to do with our attitude towards the EU.
Instead, if you look east, our exports to China have increased from 10% of total exports in 2008 to nearly 15% today, as we speak. The Chinese economy is now the second largest in the world. Yet you say the economies of all the countries in Brics are shrinking. The African continent is but one area to which everybody is looking and, as a country, it would only be logical for us to focus on where the growth is.
I am also intrigued by the IFP's assertion. [Interjections.] At least she did say that she wanted to paint a bleak future. I don't think it helped. You say we are on a slippery slope? Please look carefully. We are not on a slippery slope; it is how we conduct ourselves. I also couldn't follow exactly what Mr Kwankwa from the UDM was saying. Maybe somebody will be able to decode what the hon member was saying. [Laughter.] The falling commodity prices, to which the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries referred, the weak currency, and more about BEE being a crime, I also find intriguing.
Ladies and gentlemen and hon members, the 2013 MTBPS has indeed been tabled at a challenging moment, with opportunities for change. While continued growth in a weak global environment demonstrates the resilience of the domestic economy, the pace of economic expansion, we agree, is inadequate to address our needs. South Africa has to give greater impetus to the investment and structural reforms that will lead to faster growth, generate jobs, and create new opportunities for emerging businesses. Challenging times require that South Africans - again, I repeat what the Minister has said - unite and give effect to the sound plans that we have adopted. While the global outlook is not expected to improve in the near future, there are many areas of opportunity, and those are the ones that we must take advantage of.
The sound fiscal framework that we have put in place supports the sustainable financing of government spending, while progressive alignment between departmental budgets and the objectives of the NDP will continue to bolster government's contribution to development. Thank you very much for the support that we receive in this House.