Few countries in transition have managed to get a grip on their public finances as well as South Africa did after 1994. Now, just more than 20 years later, the nation's credibility and the democratic project lie in tatters as we teeter on the brink of a political and fiscal cliff. Business confidence and investment have evaporated along with clean, accountable government, causing South Africa to be downgraded to junk status, crushing the country's growth potential and pushing it towards a debt trap. How did we land up in this mess, and can we pull back from the brink? Claire Bisseker, the award-winning economics editor of the 'Financial Mail', unpacks the crisis in this accessible and highly readable guide to what makes our economy tick.