The 2026 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) achieves two of South Africa’s economic imperatives: continuing its successful fiscal consolidation initiatives and providing cost of living relief to households and businesses, despite a volatile, global political and economic environment. The MTBPS clearly illustrates that responsible fiscal management and macroeconomic stability are necessary preconditions to free-up sustainable spending on social and

Modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) remains a complex, adaptive and under-reported crime that is sustained by systems capable of moving people and money with speed, secrecy and impunity. South Africa is exposed to these dynamics as a source, transit and destination country, and as a relevant node in trafficking-linked financial flows. This report, Follow the money: Two years on

South Africa’s exposure to illicit financial flows (IFF) via trade and payments is material, cross-border, and multi-channel. External evidence highlights commodity-centric risks – especially gold – and persistent partner country discrepancies characteristic of trade mis-invoicing. Supervisory insights, aggregated from anonymised bank returns, show how value moves through the regulated sector on high-velocity retail rails, via cards and E F Ts, and along trade payment