The ANC inherited debt at 50% of GDP, cut it to 28%, and ran the first budget surplus since the formation of the Union of South Africa. Then, after 2008, debt nearly tripled to around 80%. Bheki Mahlobo walks Gabriel Makin through his analysis of the fall and the rise of South Africa's debt, , the Mandela warning that drove thirteen years of fiscal prudence, and why the developmental state that worked is not given enough credit.