Wiese is one of South Africa\u2019s most successful businessmen, having built numerous retail giants, including Pepkor and Shoprite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He served as chairman of both Shoprite, which owns Checkers, OK Bazaars, and Usave, as well as Pepkor, the parent company of Pep Stores, for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He describes himself as an incurable optimist who believes that South Africa is the best country in the world to live in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons Wiese is optimistic about his home country is its people, whom he describes as good and friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI believe most of the people in South Africa are good people. There are other countries where you cannot say that of people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He explained that, in the end, the fact that the majority of South Africans are good people will matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is also optimistic about South Africa due to its strong private sector, which helps address many of the country\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSouth Africa differs from failed African nations in that it has a vibrant, large, competent, and committed private sector,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhatever the government cannot do, and there is a lot, the private sector can fix in a short period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiese believes that if the government gets out of the way, the private sector can solve the country\u2019s numerous problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA year from now, South Africa will be unrecognisable. All we need to do is get rid of our ideological hangups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Law and order should be a priority in South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Christo-Wiese-1-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a>Business mogul Christo Wiese<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWiese said the South African government should focus on ensuring there is law and order in the country, as it is the primary function of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He cited Senior Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, who said the primary function of any government is law and order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you let law and order slip in a country, you have a huge problem,\u201d Wiese said, explaining that it is the foundation of a healthy society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that Argentina’s President Javier Milei shares this view and has turned the country around in a short period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Milei said the top priority for creating a prosperous Argentina is restoring the rule of law and the sanctity of contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiese said the revelations in the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System are shocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said many South Africans ascribed the problems in the police and judiciary to incompetence, but more nefarious reasons have now come to light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe knew for a long time that something was badly wrong in our judicial system. However, we did not know the rot was that deep,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said people were appointed to positions where they could not perform their functions and were set up to be corrupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is very worrying, and hopefully, it will be one of the factors which will make South Africa change direction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiese urged the South African government to take decisive action to resolve its problems and create a more prosperous country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that one of the major obstacles to doing the right thing is absolute ideologies which do not serve South Africa\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South African billionaire Christo Wiese said the government should focus on law and order and get out of the way of the private sector, which is fixing the country\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":844353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[5223,4137,24159,24225,24223,24224,4076,7520,24226],"class_list":["post-844351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-checkers","tag-christo-wiese","tag-javier-milei","tag-law-and-order","tag-lee-hsien-loong","tag-ok-bazaars","tag-pepkor","tag-shoprite","tag-sizwe-mpofu-walsh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844356,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844351\/revisions\/844356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a>Wiese said the South African government should focus on ensuring there is law and order in the country, as it is the primary function of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He cited Senior Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, who said the primary function of any government is law and order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you let law and order slip in a country, you have a huge problem,\u201d Wiese said, explaining that it is the foundation of a healthy society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that Argentina’s President Javier Milei shares this view and has turned the country around in a short period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Milei said the top priority for creating a prosperous Argentina is restoring the rule of law and the sanctity of contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiese said the revelations in the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System are shocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said many South Africans ascribed the problems in the police and judiciary to incompetence, but more nefarious reasons have now come to light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe knew for a long time that something was badly wrong in our judicial system. However, we did not know the rot was that deep,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said people were appointed to positions where they could not perform their functions and were set up to be corrupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is very worrying, and hopefully, it will be one of the factors which will make South Africa change direction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiese urged the South African government to take decisive action to resolve its problems and create a more prosperous country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that one of the major obstacles to doing the right thing is absolute ideologies which do not serve South Africa\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South African billionaire Christo Wiese said the government should focus on law and order and get out of the way of the private sector, which is fixing the country\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":844353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[5223,4137,24159,24225,24223,24224,4076,7520,24226],"class_list":["post-844351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-checkers","tag-christo-wiese","tag-javier-milei","tag-law-and-order","tag-lee-hsien-loong","tag-ok-bazaars","tag-pepkor","tag-shoprite","tag-sizwe-mpofu-walsh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844356,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844351\/revisions\/844356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}