JOHANNESBURG - When Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivers his budget speech on Wednesday, the country's debt crisis will be at the top of his mind.
Over the last few years, South Africa has borrowed to make ends meet, and now owes about R6 trillion.
Back in 2020 former Finance Minister Tito Mboweni likened South Africa’s growing debt problem to a hippo’s open mouth.
The hippo is known for its big mouth and thick skin.
He warned that if we didn’t close the hippo’s mouth, the country faced a debt crisis. But like the thick skin of the hippo, the message didn’t get through.
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In the speech Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana didn’t deliver, he planned to raise just over R2.2 trillion in taxes.
But he planned to spend much more – R2.6 trillion. It left him with a shortfall of R353 billion – money he has to borrow. After years of borrowing, South Africa now sits with a R6 trillion debt.
That means it's paying almost R1.2 billion a day to service this debt.
Put differently, for every R100 received in taxes, R22 goes toward repaying debt.
eNCA’s Heidi Giokos filed this report.