South Africa is becoming increasingly digital when it comes to payments, but the country is not moving towards a cashless future.
This is the feedback from Banking and Finance executive and consultant, Angela Itzikowitz, Era Gunning, and Candidate Legal Practitioner Dylan Martheze at ENSafrica.
According to these experts, the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) new Cash Smart Strategy has recognised that cash and digital payments are not direct substitutes and will continue to coexist.
The strategy is set out in the SARB’s recent position paper, Towards a Cash Smart Society, which takes what ENSafrica described as a “practical and distinctly South African view” of the country’s payment system.
“Cash and digital payments are not direct substitutes: they work together in a hybrid payment system,” said ENSafrica.
This is important because cash remains deeply embedded in South African commerce, particularly among informal businesses, rural communities and lower-income households.
ENSafrica said that for many of these consumers, cash is not a choice based on habit, but a practical need influenced by access, cost, trust, infrastructure and digital skills.
The SARB, therefore, does not view cash as an outdated payment method that should simply disappear.
Instead, it considers cash a critical part of the national payment system that must remain affordable, accessible, trusted and secure.
ENSafrica said the strategy signals the SARB’s intention to treat cash as a “system-wide public good”, with a framework designed to balance efficiency, competition, resilience and financial inclusion.
The growth of digital payments is making it more difficult to justify some of the costs associated with maintaining physical cash infrastructure.
Bank branches are closing, ATM networks are shrinking, cash-in-transit costs remain high, and providing cash services in rural areas can be less profitable.
ENSafrica warned that if access to cash is left entirely to market forces, it could gradually become “more expensive and less reliable” for the very communities that depend on it.
The Cash Smart Strategy is built around three main goals: affordable cash, accessible cash and ethical cash.
In practical terms, this means reducing the cost of using cash, ensuring people in both urban and rural areas can access it, and promoting the secure and accountable handling of physical currency.
This does not mean the SARB is backing away from digital payments.
ENSafrica said the approach fits into the central bank’s wider payments agenda under Strategy 2030, including its Payments Ecosystem Modernisation Programme, which aims to provide fast, affordable, user-friendly and widely available digital payment options.
“The policy direction is therefore not ‘cash versus digital’. It is cash and digital, each serving different needs within a more inclusive payment system,” said ENSafrica.
Digital payments offer speed, convenience, transparency and innovation, but they depend on connectivity, devices, infrastructure, affordable services and consumer confidence.
These conditions are not equally available across South Africa, meaning cash continues to provide an important form of access.
Cash also has a role to play in resilience. It can continue to function during certain digital outages, connectivity failures and operational disruptions.
ENSafrica said that a payment system relying only on digital channels “may not always be resilient enough”, making a well-managed cash system an important backup.
The strategy could also have implications for businesses across the cash ecosystem, including banks, retailers, ATM operators, cash-in-transit companies, payment providers and fintech firms.
ENSafrica said these businesses may face clearer standards, oversight requirements and operational responsibilities as the framework develops.
ENSafrica stressed South Africa’s payment future should focus on expanding choice rather than eliminating it.
“A payment system that is genuinely inclusive must support digital innovation while maintaining access to cash for those who need it.”
