Taxpayers’ pain has its roots set in a history that the finance minister could not overcome

In this instalment of The Fiscal Cliff – a Mail & Guardian series on how South Africa’s budget has been shaped – Sarah Smit considers the intimate link between the country’s ultra-high unemployment rate and austerity

Makana’s budget, and those of most municipalities, need monitoring  and the corrupt and wasteful held to account

The treasury has to ask itself what the true cost is of not funding our watchdog institutions

Today, as the country awaits the next update on the state of its public purse, the prospect of a debt crisis seems more imminent than before. This is as South Africa’s fiscal position has deteriorated markedly during the course of this year, a dilemma that could see the treasury inflicting another round of spending cuts.

The real issue is that the February 2023 budget was the least credible assessment of the country’s finances since 1994