South Africans' finances benefited from the two-pot retirement system and successive interest rate cuts in the first quarter of 2026, however, global events are now driving core inflation and possible rate increases.  Consumers who applied for debt counselling during the quarter needed 64 percent of their take-home pay to service debt. For top earners, the figure is 101 percent and their debt-to-income ratio is 303 percent , the highest of all the income bands. Consumers have increasingly turned to unsecured credit to bridge the gap. Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to the Executive Head of DebtBusters Benay Sager…