{"id":870467,"date":"2026-08-23T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=870467"},"modified":"2026-08-21T17:21:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:21:02","slug":"most-destructive-force-south-africa-has-ever-seen-dawie-roodt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/870467\/most-destructive-force-south-africa-has-ever-seen-dawie-roodt\/","title":{"rendered":"Most destructive force South Africa has ever seen: Dawie Roodt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa\u2019s political leadership over the past 15 years, and the growing state and tax burden, have been the most destructive forces South Africa has ever seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the feedback from renowned economist and Efficient Group founder Dawie Roodt, who addressed the 9th BizNews Conference in the Drakensberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roodt said he was increasingly frustrated by politicians promising to spend public money more effectively, while overlooking the need to reduce the amount of money the government spends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m really getting sick and tired of these politicians. Because they all tell us how they\u2019re going to spend our money and how well they\u2019re going to spend it,\u201d Roodt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey promise to fix things and do better, claiming no corruption, full transparency, and all that sort of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the priority should instead be reducing the amount of money the government takes from taxpayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course, they must spend it well, but they must spend less of it. We are totally overburdened, and this economy cannot carry it anymore,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roodt argued that the role of the state should primarily be to provide law and order, protect property rights, and create an environment in which individuals and businesses can trade and create wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He traced economic development back to the emergence of private property rights and trade, arguing that these institutions played a critical role in improving living standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Roodt, the modern state has become too large and increasingly views taxpayers as a source of funding for government programmes rather than as the people it exists to serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roodt said that figures from the South African Reserve Bank\u2019s latest quarterly bulletin support his point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report showed that national government expenditure had reached 35% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2026, while government revenue had risen to 30% of GDP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roodt described both figures as the highest in South Africa\u2019s history. He also said government debt was around 80% of GDP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cause of this in South Africa has a name<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Against this backdrop, Roodt argued that South Africa\u2019s economic deterioration over the past 15 years could be linked directly to government policy and administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, we are poorer than we were 15 years ago on a per capita basis. So, the South African economy is not doing well. In fact, it\u2019s doing absolutely horribly,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then identified what he sees as the central cause of the problem. \u201cAnd what is that cause? I think that cause has a name, and that name is the ANC,\u201d Roodt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He criticised what he described as the party\u2019s ideological roots in socialism and communism, as well as policies such as expropriation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He argued that policies affecting private property rights undermine one of the foundations of economic development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ANC\u2019s policies are wrong as well. Policies like expropriation are wrong because private property rights are the very reason we are where we are today,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roodt also blamed cadre deployment, corruption, and government incompetence for the deterioration of municipalities and state-owned enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a new form of state capture in South Africa, driven by two distinct groups. The first includes civil servants, politicians, and bureaucrats, while the second consists of tenderpreneurs,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his criticism of the government, Roodt rejected calls for taxpayers to stop paying their taxes. Instead, he advised taxpayers to legally minimise their tax liabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo not evade taxes. Do not break any laws, but do whatever you can to pay as little tax as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roodt also warned that South Africa could not afford to lose its relatively small pool of high-income taxpayers, given the country’s extensive redistribution system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead, he said there were reasons for cautious optimism, particularly if South Africa implemented reforms that encouraged investment and economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pointed to the reduction of the inflation target to 3% as an example of how policy changes could influence financial markets and potentially the broader economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he said political reform remained the biggest obstacle. \u201cWe need to fix politics in South Africa to get politicians and political parties that can put the right economic policies in place to help this economy grow,\u201d Roodt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He argued that South Africa could achieve economic growth of 4%, 5% or 6% if the right policies were implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe right policies will be put in place only by another political party or grouping, because the ANC has proven itself to be incompetent and the most destructive force South Africa has ever seen,\u201d Roodt said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Renowned economist and Efficient Group founder Dawie Roodt held nothing back during his address at the 9th BizNews Conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":870480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2091390237633126497","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2184081712412228","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18092786942537255","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26188,1875,1459,2562,853],"class_list":["post-870467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-9th-biznews-conference","tag-anc","tag-dawie-roodt","tag-efficient-group","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870467","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=870467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870504,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870467\/revisions\/870504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}