South Africa must get rid of corruption and incompetence – Standard Bank CEO

Corruption and incompetence, brought about partly through poor regulation, severely slow South Africa’s economic growth and development. 

These two ills also prevent real transformation and empowerment from occurring in South Africa, Standard Bank CEO Sim Tshabalala said. 

Writing in his CEO’s report in the bank’s latest annual report, Tshabalala explained that South Africa and Nigeria are Africa’s two “sleeping giants”. 

These economies, the biggest on the continent, are slowly awakening from their slumber through structural reform and improved state finances. 

However, in the case of South Africa, significant regulatory changes are required for economic growth to accelerate to levels where it makes an impact on unemployment and per capita income. 

Tshabalala called for a comprehensive review and modernisation of South Africa’s regulatory system, as it is no longer aligned with the country’s social needs and economic realities. 

In particular, Tshabalala said the government needs to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to operate. 

Apart from improving the operating environment, the CEO explained that poor regulation has significant negative effects on South Africa, creating opportunities for illegitimate and inefficient rent-seeking. 

“In 2025, South Africa’s economy and society continued to be put under grave pressure by the corrupt appointment of ill-equipped contractors under the cover of regulation,” Tshabalala said. 

This was brought into stark relief by News24’s Jeff Wicks in his book, The Shadow State: Why Babita Deokaran Had to Die, which examined the impact of widespread corruption in South Africa’s healthcare and policing sectors. 

Tshabalala explained that similar problems are occurring in the municipal water and electricity sectors, with issues of policing under investigation in an official enquiry. 

“This combination of graft and incompetence severely slows economic growth and development, prevents real transformation and empowerment,” Tshabalala said. 

“It means that millions of South Africans regularly go without essential services, resulting in lost output, social tension, and heightened country risk.” 

“Thankfully, as I write this, the national government has begun to focus much more intensely on this set of issues.”

South Africa getting its house in order

Tshabalala’s latest comments follow a long line of his statements regarding the capacity of South Africa’s public sector. 

While South Africa has made strong progress with structural reform in the electricity and logistics sectors, local governments have become a growing problem. 

The state’s inefficiency and lack of capacity have resulted in South Africa failing to leverage its competitive advantages. 

“Please improve the quality of our institutions. In the case of South Africa, we use the lovely phrase ‘Please capacitate the public sector’,” Tshabalala said previously. 

“Some parts of the public sector are excellent, such as the National Treasury and the Reserve Bank. Replicate what is happening at those institutions across the board.”

“Please capacitate the state,” he repeated. “Please professionalise it. Please continue to make doing business easier.”

Tshabalala explained that South Africa is in an intense global competition for resources that are needed to grow its economy and improve the lives of its citizens. 

“The way to be able to compete and partner appropriately is to make sure that you have got your house in order,” Tshabalala said.

Ultimately, South Africa is not going to get the resources it needs only through partnerships with like-minded states. The country has to show it is attractive to allocators of those resources. 

We are competing for resources out there, and the competitors are not going to do us favours. We have to get competitive,” Tshabalala said. 

“We are competing on the continent and with emerging markets for this capital. So if they have decreased the risk of investing in their country and generated greater returns, the money will then rather go to those places than South Africa.”

The key, he said, is economic growth.  “We are growing at 1%. Other countries are growing much faster. Where do you think that money is going to go? It is going to go to other countries and not South Africa.”