22c of Your Tax Rand Is Already Spent. Here’s Where It Goes…
Twenty-two cents doesn’t sound like much. It’s the kind of number you ignore; the loose change of national conversation.
But 22c is the point.
Because 22c of every rand South Africans pay in tax goes to servicing government debt. Not building. Not expanding. Not improving. Servicing. Paying the cost of what’s already been borrowed; and paying it again, and again, and again, as interest.
That’s why this number matters: It’s the hidden line item in your monthly reality. The reason government can announce priorities and still struggle to deliver them at scale. The reason “we don’t have the money” can be true even when billions are being collected.
The debt is not theoretical; it’s massive
South Africa’s debt sits in the trillions of rand, a scale so big it becomes hard to feel. But the consequences aren’t distant. Debt changes what a country can do now.
When debt grows, the interest bill grows with it. And interest doesn’t negotiate. It doesn’t wait for growth. It doesn’t care about load shedding, unemployment, or whether departments are functioning well. It arrives on schedule; and it must be paid on schedule.
This is how debt becomes a budget trap: The more you owe, the more you spend just to keep standing still.
What gets crowded out first
Debt servicing costs don’t just sit neatly in a spreadsheet. They crowd out choices.
If a large portion of revenue is tied up in interest payments, government has less flexibility to hire, to build, to fix, and to respond. That pressure shows up in places South Africans can actually see: Vacancies that stay unfilled, infrastructure that takes longer to repair, plans that exist on paper but move slowly in real life.
And it’s not because these needs aren’t urgent. It’s because the payment queue is already full.
Why the Budget is the suspense point
This episode lands on the day before the Budget for a reason: The Budget is where promises either become policy or remain poetry.
For government, one of the biggest credibility tests is whether it can stabilise debt; to stop the debt ratio from climbing and, eventually, to start bringing it down. Markets, lenders, and rating agencies pay close attention to that signal because it speaks to one thing: Confidence in the future.
If the Budget numbers suggest the debt trajectory is improving, borrowing becomes less punishing. If it suggests debt will keep rising, borrowing gets more expensive; which pushes the interest bill higher; which shrinks the budget further.
That’s the cycle South Africa is trying to break.
The question every taxpayer is really asking
The number is 22c.
But the real question is: How much of your tax rand is still available for the country you need; after the past has already taken its cut?
And with the Budget looming, the next question is even sharper: Does the plan hold or does the bill get bigger?