{"id":853013,"date":"2026-03-09T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=853013"},"modified":"2026-03-09T06:43:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T04:43:35","slug":"how-every-r100-in-tax-you-pay-is-spent-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/853013\/how-every-r100-in-tax-you-pay-is-spent-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"How every R100 in tax you pay is spent in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Since 2017, South Africa\u2019s budget allocation for debt repayment and interest has surged, surpassing expenditures on education, social grants, health, and community development. As a result, spending in these social wage areas had to be reduced to fund debt servicing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, while presenting the 2026 budget to Parliament, declared that South Africa has \u201cturned a corner\u201d and that government debt is becoming stable.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A chart compiled by The Outlier indicated that for every R100 the government spends:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>R16.31 is used towards debt-service costs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R13.36 towards basic education<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R12.19 towards social protection<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R11.45 towards health<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R11.28 towards community development<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R6.11 towards economic regulation and infrastructure<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R5.94 for post-school education and training<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R5.18 for police services<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R3.49 for social security funds <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R14.69 for other government expenditure by function<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Debt costs have increased for several reasons, one of which is the low economic growth in South Africa, averaging 0.6% (accounting for inflation) between 2017 and 2023, which led to lower tax revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GroundUp <a href=\"https:\/\/groundup.org.za\/article\/explained-how-south-africa-getting-handle-on-debt\/?utm_source=outlierafrica.beehiiv.com&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=146-this-week-in-charts-27-february-2026&amp;_bhlid=97e32ff44e5135fa590dac59d3eee645253b7c92\">said<\/a> the Covid-19 pandemic had long-term economic effects, leading the government to increase spending on emergency relief and social grants. This resulted in a significant budget deficit, which the government covered through borrowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Debt costs rose further amid rising global\u00a0interest\u00a0rates\u00a0and\u00a0a weaker rand. Additionally, state-owned entities such as Eskom required substantial bailouts, which reduced government revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the past few years, the government has tightened its belt to find funds to repay debt and pay interest on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, tax revenue is increasing as investments in electricity generation and improvements to port export infrastructure pay off, and the economy grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The economy is projected to expand by 1.6% in 2026 (inflation-adjusted) and by 2% in 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Africa\u2019s debt remains above 78% of its annual economic output (Gross Domestic Product or GDP). However, the Treasury believes this ratio will decline from 2026 onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/R100-gov.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"578\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/R100-gov-1024x578.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-853210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/R100-gov-1024x578.png 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/R100-gov-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/R100-gov-768x433.png 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/R100-gov.png 1196w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Based on the latest statistics, this is how the government spends every R100 you pay in tax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":828044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[24824,10919,2887,17955],"class_list":["post-853013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-budget-2026","tag-groundup","tag-tax","tag-the-outlier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853013"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853224,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853013\/revisions\/853224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}