For those who grow weary of the mention of Venezuela, they are not alone. But you people can continue to ignore the fiscal similarities:
Worrying echoes can already be heard, some from the same institutions whose credit committees unwittingly helped to end apartheid. In mid-2017 Citi (the successor to Citibank) refused to roll over its loans to SAA, forcing the government into an urgent bail-out. If more banks start pulling loans from state-owned companies, that will trigger a run on the currency and a spike in interest rates. The government will find itself compelled to step in, driving up its debt-to-GDP ratio by as much as ten percentage points. That in turn could force South Africa to turn to the IMF for a bail-out, which would not be granted without strict conditions attached.
Unless South Africa changes economic course in early 2018, it will be remembered as the year that the ANC, Africa’s oldest liberation movement, lost South Africa its economic freedom.