Welcome though it is, the dramatic growth of South Africa’s black middle class is not problem-free. In many other emerging markets such rapid growth of the middle class has gone hand-in-hand with a steep increase in savings deposits held by banks. South Africa’s experience is very different and, since 2000, household savings have simply disappeared from the scene turning negative in 2006 when for the first time ever according to Mr Rudi Gous, chief economist at Rand Merchant Bank, families spent more than they earned.

At the same time, household debt has risen steeply from 50 per cent of personal disposable income in 2002 to nearly 74 per cent last year. Heavy borrowing by the new middle class is only part of the story as, right across the formal economy, rising household wealth is encouraging consumers to take on new credit. So much so in fact that, at the beginning of June, the country’s new credit act, designed to clamp down on the granting of excessive – and costly – credit, especially to those in no position to repay the loans, came into operation.