Lack of spending cuts implies new, more taxes

Cape Town - A "fiscal cliff" has not yet been averted in South Africa, but is further in the distance than before, a Wits University professor said on Tuesday.

The country had been heading for a cliff by 2026, with social assistance expenditure and remuneration of civil servants exceeding total government revenue, said economic and business sciences head Prof. Jannie Rossouw.

A new fiscal forecast suggested the cliff was further away, accepting that the take-up rate in social grants would increase for the next decade and then level out.