{"id":855335,"date":"2026-04-04T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=855335"},"modified":"2026-04-02T19:08:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:08:28","slug":"south-africa-is-getting-looted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/855335\/south-africa-is-getting-looted\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa is getting looted"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa is still getting looted by an entrenched system of extraction that has spread through every level of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the feedback from the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) CEO, Wayne Duvenage, who said South Africa once showed real promise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his address during the BizNews conference<\/a> in Hermanus in March, he said the country has, in the past, enjoyed average growth rates of 3.5% and 4% for a couple of years in a row, while debt and tax burdens were being reduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCorporate taxes also came down from 35% to 28%\u2026 This was brilliant,\u201d he said, pointing to former finance minister Trevor Manuel\u2019s reforms at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that momentum, he argued, was derailed when Zuma came into power, bringing with it \u201ca very extractive mindset that has been established and permeated throughout government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Duvenage, this culture of looting spread from national to provincial to local government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It created a system designed not to serve citizens, but to protect itself and keep siphoning money out of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that major contracts, infrastructure deals, policies and systems increasingly became opportunities to channel money into political networks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery deal, every big deal, there had to be a funding flow to the pockets of the politically connected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duvenage did not mince his words when describing the governing party\u2019s role. \u201cIt is a criminal entity. Nothing short of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He argued that leading political parties themselves have lost control, even over the scale of theft within their own structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the consequences of this are visible everywhere, especially in crumbling municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duvenage rejected the idea that local governments are simply underfunded. \u201cMunicipalities are not broke, the money is there,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that municipal revenues have surged from R155 billion in 2008 to R600, R615 billion today, yet services have collapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re failing. They\u2019re not paying the electricity,\u201d he said, despite the vastly larger budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africans are not powerless<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) CEO, Wayne Duvenage<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Duvenage said this proves that South Africans are not suffering because the state lacks resources, but because those resources are being diverted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are more middlemen, but you get fewer RDP houses, fewer clinics, and no medicines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also warned that looting is often hidden inside complicated public-interest schemes. He pointed to e-tolls as one example of an \u201cextractive system\u201d disguised behind \u201ca user pays principle\u201d and \u201cusing technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, the scheme was designed to overcharge motorists, with what he said was 27% of revenue going to administration, rather than the global norm of about 10%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same pattern has appeared in energy policy, including the attempted powership deal during load shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He argued that South Africans were almost locked into a deal of R240 billion for 20 years for power the country did not need, with layers of contractors and suppliers positioned to benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His broader warning is that corruption doesn\u2019t just steal money\u2014it strips away freedom. \u201cThis cadre deployment and extractive process is a serious attack on our liberties,\u201d Duvenage said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As taxes rise, services fail, and households are forced to pay privately for security, electricity and basic infrastructure, citizens are left carrying the cost of a looted state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he insisted South Africans are not powerless. \u201cYou, the people, have more power than you think,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The danger, he warned, is complacency. \u201cThe greatest danger is when we as citizens just become complacent, when we resign to the fact that this is our new reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLiberty is not protected by governments. It\u2019s protected by people like you and me who refuse to stop asking the tough questions,\u201d Duvenage said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa is still getting looted by an entrenched system of extraction that has spread through every level of the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":855336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23640,853,22224],"class_list":["post-855335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-biznews-conference","tag-south-africa","tag-the-organisation-undoing-tax-abuse-outa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855335","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855335"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855458,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855335\/revisions\/855458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}