South Africans are paying significantly more on their bonds and to service their debts due to the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) interest rate hikes – which were never needed. An economist has warned South Africans that they are paying the cost of an unnecessarily harsh monetary policy, which is costing households at  least R4,000 a month. This is the view of Dr Roelof Botha, an economist, a part time economics lecturer at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and is the Economic Advisor to the Optimum Financial Services Group, says that South Africa’s interest rates do not need to be as high as they are and he joins us to elaborate why he say that.