South African government’s nasty R3 trillion surprise

• The South African government accumulated over R3 trillion in unexpected debt service costs between 2011 and 2026 due to cumulative revenue forecast errors over the last 15 years.
• The paper was written by researchers Jan-Hendrik Pretorius, Lisa-Cheree Martin, and Daan Steenkamp, and was part of the Southern Africa – Towards Inclusive Economic Development (SA-TIED) programme.
• The annual debt service costs for the 2026/27 financial year are expected to reach R432.4 billion, equating to South Africa spending R1.18 billion every single day to service its debt.