On page 22 of the National Treasury's Budget Review, a document prepared by the exchequer's bureaucrats which gives meat to the bare bones of every budget speech, there is a graph which clearly shows the cost of the state capture years - a cost that is now exacting a heavy toll.

It was there where the ANC government started taking leave of any semblance of civic and public duty and where our slide to a yawning budget deficit, ballooning national debt and a collapse in economic growth started.

The Budget Review document, again, issues stern warnings about the repercussions if significant economic reforms are not enacted and details what should be done to avoid South Africa following the same path as some basket case countries which disappeared into the black hole of a debt crisis.

But if the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa did not take heed of Treasury's warnings in October 2018, when Mboweni delivered his first medium-term budget policy statement, or in the three budget statements since, why would it do so now?

In his introduction to the Budget Review, Treasury's director-general, Dondo Mogajane, said: "For several years, the National Treasury has been warning that an absence of fiscal space would leave South Africa vulnerable to external shocks.