South Africa’s Payment Problem Is Bigger Than Cash
Payments are one of those invisible systems that only become visible when they break. A transfer takes too long. A card machine fails. A fee feels absurd. A small business owner waits for money that should already be available. For most people, these moments feel like isolated frustrations. But they point to something much bigger: the infrastructure of payments helps decide who moves easily through the economy, and who does not.
That is what makes the Both Sides conversation between Randall Abrahams and Israel Skosana so compelling. On the surface, it is a discussion about payment rails, digital systems and financial inclusion. Underneath, it is really about access, cost and participation in modern South Africa.
One of the strongest ideas in the episode is also one of the simplest: payments are the lifeblood of the economy. Money needs to move efficiently, securely and quickly for commerce to work properly. When movement slows down, the consequences are not abstract. They affect households, traders, merchants, and small businesses trying to operate in real time.
That matters even more when you consider the episode’s biggest figure. Cash costs South Africa R30 billion a year to manage. That number reframes a very familiar habit. Cash can feel direct, trusted and immediate, but behind that simplicity is an expensive chain of handling, transport, security and insurance. The question the episode raises is not whether cash should disappear. It is whether the country can afford not to build better alternatives.
But the sharpest turn in the conversation comes when inclusion enters the frame. South Africa may have a high rate of bank-account ownership, yet that does not settle the real issue. The issue is usage. If people are withdrawing their money immediately and relying on cash day to day, then formal access has not necessarily translated into meaningful participation in a digital economy. That is where the distinction between being banked and being included becomes crucial.
This is where cost becomes a gatekeeper. If a person wants to send a small amount of money and loses a large portion of it just in transaction costs, the system is not creating inclusion. It is reproducing exclusion in a more modern-looking form. The technology may exist, the account may exist, the infrastructure may technically be there, but the lived experience still says: this is too expensive to use properly.
The episode also gives that problem a business face. Faster settlement is not just a nice extra for SMEs. It can shape whether a merchant can restock quickly, manage daily cash flow, and keep trading momentum alive. For a small operator, instant access to funds can change what tomorrow looks like. That makes payment innovation more than a fintech story. It becomes a local economic story, especially in places where time and liquidity are everything.
What makes this episode land is that it strips away the jargon. It reminds us that payment systems are not neutral background machinery. They quietly structure who gets speed, who absorbs cost, and who is left waiting. And in a country still trying to widen real economic participation, that is not a side issue. It is the story.