In less than a week South Africans will have a clearer picture of how taxpayer money will be spent and how budgets are likely to be slashed when the medium-term budget policy statement is delivered.

There is serious worry about government’s growing debt as it throws terms such as fiscal consolidation, fiscal cliff or crunch around.

Now in a newly released report entitled Public Debt Report, Alternatives to Austerity: Dealing with Rising Levels of Public Debt tries to pave a new path to handling the country’s debt and budget.

It’s estimated that gross government debt stands at more than R4.7 trillion and is expected to exceed R5 trillion by the end of this year.

For more on the Public Debt Report NRA spoke to the Economic Justice Programme coordinator at the Alternative Information Development Centre (AIDC) Dominic Brown.