South Africa’s government is losing control

South African households and companies are increasingly cutting the state out of their lives by investing in private alternatives to historically state-provided services. 

This is a result of declining service delivery in South Africa and, in some cases, a deliberate retreat by the state from providing certain services. 

It also stems from government overreach in some sectors of the economy where its monopolies are dominant, which has pushed private players to try to avoid interacting with the state. 

This is feedback from Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt, who explained that the government is heading towards the point where it will simply be ignored by households and companies. 

“There are examples of what is going to happen if the government keeps trying to squeeze more revenue from taxpayers for poorer service delivery,” Roodt told BizNews. 

“The private sector will eventually just ignore them, and there are examples of that already happening in South Africa.”

Roodt pointed to the country’s electricity sector as one of the main examples of private players creating alternatives to state-run institutions. 

“The government mismanaged Eskom and destroyed it. The private sector simply ignores the state by putting their own solar panels on their roofs,” Roodt said. 

Another major example can be found at the municipal level, with an increasing number of local governments failing to deliver basic services. 

This results in local businesses and households coming together to perform the municipality’s function, whether it be refuse collection, repairing roads, or providing security. 

“The local governments have collapsed, and the private sector is taking it over,” Roodt said. 

“The horrible thing is that not everybody can afford to do that. There are so many poor people who cannot look after themselves.” 

“Regardless, people are building their own mini-societies that are not dependent on the state anymore. The state is becoming irrelevant.” 

South Africa breaking up into enclaves

If the current trend continues, South Africa is set to break up into small enclaves where local communities deliver services to residents. 

This can already be seen in the proliferation of lifestyle estates across the country, which operate with effectively private security, education, and, increasingly, utilities. 

Political analyst Dr Frans Cronje refers to this as the ‘Balkanisation’ of South Africa and sees it as a direct threat to the country’s union. 

“When you step back from the noise, this is a test of the strength of the Union of South Africa, the coming together of the country in 1910,” Cronje said on The Common Sense podcast. 

“That union is a bit odd and does not fit together easily in terms of culture, ethnicities, and geography, among other things.” 

Cronje explained that the reason why South Africa has held together so far was the presence of a strong centre in Pretoria. 

This centre forced its authority onto the country through force of arms or by force of moral standing that the ANC had in the 1990s and 2000s. 

“What you are seeing now is perhaps the end of the last central authority and, if that happens, South Africa is going to fracture and Balkanise,” Cronje said. 

“Not in the old idea of that by declaring independence, but in a more subtle, de facto sense where people live in enclaves.” 

Cronje explained that 30 years ago, there were around 400 people for every one private security officer and a similar number of people per single police officer. 

Now, there are fewer than 100 people per private security officer, but there are now more than 400 people for every one police officer. 

“What has happened is that the private sector has taken over the monopoly on the use of violence in society from the state. That is important,” Cronje said. 

“If you look beyond policing, you will see that it has happened in many other areas too. The same can be seen with electricity and road freight transport.”

Cronje said, at the extreme, this will ultimately result in South Africans living in a society where whatever the government does in Pretoria matters has little impact on their daily lives.