South Africa’s pockets are empty, says National Treasury

The country's debt crisis has forced the government to spend close to nothing on SA's essential services such as education, health care and infrastructure. So dire is the situation that Treasury official Edgar Sishi has now said there is no money. According to Eyewitness News, Sishi first sounded the alarm in June when he said that the repayments on debt were so high that they left little room for Treasury to accommodate basic services. "Additional spending will require higher debt, and this comes with high interest. Rising debt service costs are crowding out our ability to pay for health and education services. Next year, payment on interest will be higher than spending on health and the year after that, payment on interest will be higher than total spending on basic education," said Sishi. Municipal bad debt, corruption, mismanagement of funds and the money used for the Covid crisis are also understood to be the source of Treasury's woes. – Bernice Maune.