Don't Waste a Serious Crisis: Lessons from South Africa's Debt Crisis

Abstract

To date, South Africa has only experienced one sovereign debt crisis. This occurred in 1985 and it was an episode in the end game of the anti-apartheid struggle. Although, the South African debt crisis was unusual, there are enough similarities between it and other sovereign debt crises that it remains a relevant case study for current sovereign debt crises.

There are three significant lessons that can be learned from the South African crisis. In order to explain these lessons, this chapter is divided into four sections. The first section will provide a brief overview of the South African debt crisis. The second section will highlight changes in the global financial system since the crisis that are relevant to the lessons of the South African crisis. The third section focuses on the lessons from the crisis. The final section is a concluding section.

Keywords: international financial law, sovereign debt, international law, international relations, Africa

JEL Classification: F3, F34, F65, H63, K33, N47, O24, O55