SA debt stress: Govt scrambles to borrow more money

The South  African government, which is being forced to sell ever more debt than planned because it’s spending more than it makes, is unlikely to reverse this spiral any time soon - especially not ahead of an election, economists say. It emerged in the medium-term budget that over the next three years, the state will have to borrow more, issuing debt at an average of R552.7-billion a year to finance the widening gap between expenditure and tax collection, to refinance maturing bonds and to fund the Eskom debt-relief arrangement.