Repeating economic mistakes of failing states will be SA’s tipping point

SOUTH Africa is drifting toward a fiscal and economic trap that has ensnared many nations before it.

- FAROUK CASSIM

The warning signs are unmistakable: unemployment above 33%, rising taxes, deteriorating public services, mounting debt, and a bureaucracy that continues to expand while economic growth stagnates.This is not merely misfortune. It is the predictable consequence of policy choices.

For more than a decade, the government has prioritised political accommodation over structural reform. The public sector wage bill has surged, patronage networks have proliferated, and consumption spending has crowded out productive investment.

Meanwhile, economic growth has averaged below 1% since 2012. This is far below what is required to absorb new entrants into the labour force or reverse poverty. When the state grows faster than the economy that sustains it, decline becomes inevitable.

International experience shows exactly where this road leads. Pakistan's elite capture of state institutions hollowed out governance and crippled service delivery.