South Africa is close to defaulting on its debt repayments and if the government does not act immediately‚ it will have to go to the International Monetary Fund cap in hand for a bailout very soon‚ the Congress of the People (COPE) party warned. COPE spokesman Dennis Bloem said President Jacob Zuma did not seem to be acutely aware that it was economic crunch time. “His plan in axing Minister Nene (as finance minister) was to seize the treasury‚ bail out SAA and confirm the nuclear deal with Russia. Today‚ is all that matters to President Zuma. Tomorrow is someone else’s problem and responsibility. Unlike President Thabo Mbeki who wanted to keep the state coffers full‚ President Zuma has been in a dreadful hurry to empty them. “That is why the national debt has gone over the two trillion rand ceiling and why the state coffers are dangerously empty‚” Bloem asserted. He said Zuma was also not concerned that a heap of state debt payments were falling due between 2016 and 2017.“Neither is he worried that the cost of borrowing is rising for government after his humungous blunder and irresponsibility. President Zuma has continued to steer the course he set in 2009. Now the ship of state has sailed into the seven year storm of biblical proportion.” If the government sought to hike taxes in February‚ it would lead to a tax revolt‚ Bloem warned‚ adding that peoples' patience had been tried to straining point. “Zuma has no option but to perform a major surgery on his government that has gone obscenely obese. He must also introduce drastic salary cuts through all levels of government at once. The budgetary haircuts of three years ago must now become military style crew cuts. “If action is delayed any longer and the national debt rises faster‚ it is inevitable that the government will face debt defaults within eighteen months it and will have to go‚ cap in hand‚ to the IMF for a bailout‚” Bloem stated. He added: “COPE urges the ruling party to call in the IMF right now‚ not for a bailout‚ but for a medical examination of its finances and for a request for a home remedy regimen. If the home remedy does not work‚ South Africa will get a prescription for the IMF that will be humiliating. “The truth needs confronting. South Africa is close to defaulting on its debt payments and if the government does not act at once‚ it will have to go to the IMF cap in hand very soon. COPE already has the government‚ not under negative outlook‚ but under negative watch. We urge South Africans to apply all the pressure they can and to do so right away. There is no time to be lost.”..