Director's Cut: Piet le Roux – How Sakeliga is taking on Ramaphosa's government and failed towns

In this Director’s Cut, Alec Hogg speaks to Sakeliga CEO Piet le Roux, who explains how his organisation is holding government accountable for collapsing municipalities. From landmark court battles to innovative “state-proofing” projects, Sakeliga is challenging corruption, mismanagement, and state overreach - proving that business and civil society can rebuild South Africa where government has failed.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Watch here.Listen here.BizNews Reporter.When Piet le Roux speaks, there is a calm certainty in his voice. It is not the tone of a man shouting into the void about South Africa’s decline. It is the tone of someone who has decided to act while others wait for permission.Le Roux, the CEO of Sakeliga, believes the time for pleading with politicians is over. “We realised some years ago that South Africa was not going to be fixed by the next election,” he tells BizNews editor Alec Hogg. “We don’t wait for permission to do what’s right for communities. We simply get on with it.”Sakeliga has become one of the most effective civil organisations in South Africa, quietly winning court cases that reshape how the state interacts with business and local communities. But what makes it remarkable is its focus on what Le Roux calls “state-proofing.”“It’s the idea that communities should not collapse just because government collapses,” he says. “If the municipality fails, if Eskom fails, if the police fail, the community doesn’t have to fail too. There are lawful, practical ways for business and citizens to keep things working.”Fighting back through the courtsSakeliga’s legal strategy has been central to this mission. One of its biggest victories came in 2022 when the organisation won a Constitutional Court case forcing the national government to intervene in municipalities that had completely failed to deliver basic services.“We took the President and several ministers to court,” Le Roux recalls. “Our argument was simple. The Constitution says if a municipality fails, national government must step in. Yet in dozens of towns, nothing was happening. People were living among sewage, businesses were shutting down, and the state was nowhere to be found.”The judgment in favour of Sakeliga sent shockwaves through government. It created a precedent that citizens and business groups could use to hold the national government directly accountable for local collapse.“This wasn’t about politics,” says Le Roux. “It was about restoring lawful order. The government was breaking its own rules by pretending it didn’t see the problem.”Beyond the courtsBut Sakeliga’s work doesn’t stop at litigation. The organisation has become a hub for what Le Roux calls “business-driven resilience.” Across the country, local chambers and civic groups are banding together to manage essential services independently — from repairing roads and keeping the lights on to running water systems and waste removal.“In many towns, it’s business owners who are keeping things running,” he says. “They fix potholes, they fund local security, they even manage small-scale electricity projects. These are not acts of charity. These are acts of preservation.”Sakeliga’s role is to support and coordinate these initiatives legally and strategically. “We’re not trying to replace the state,” Le Roux says. “We’re trying to make sure that when the state collapses, society doesn’t collapse with it.”The principle of lawful resistanceAt the heart of Sakeliga’s philosophy is a belief that law can be used as a shield rather than a weapon. “When we say ‘state-proofing,’ we don’t mean breaking the law,” Le Roux explains. “We mean using the law to protect people from unlawful government action or inaction.”He gives the example of procurement rules that often block local communities from stepping in when municipalities fail. “Imagine a business offers to repair a road or supply water, and the municipality says no because it violates procurement law,” he says. “That’s madness. The law should serve the people, not trap them in dysfunction.”By working with legal experts, Sakeliga helps communities navigate these barriers. “We’ve shown again and again that you can use the existing law to get results,” he says. “You don’t need to break the system. You just need to understand it better than the people abusing it.”Holding power to accountAlec Hogg asks Le Roux what it’s like to take on the national government head-on. Le Roux smiles. “We’re not reckless,” he says. “We prepare meticulously. And we’ve found that when you confront government with clear facts and strong legal principles, they often back down.”He’s quick to add that Sakeliga doesn’t see itself as an enemy of government. “We’re not anti-government,” he says. “We’re pro-governance. There’s a difference. We want the state to succeed where it can and to get out of the way where it can’t.”This pragmatic stance has earned Sakeliga quiet respect even among some in government circles. “There are good people in the system,” Le Roux says. “But they’re trapped by bad incentives and political paralysis. What we’re doing is creating room for competence to survive.”A blueprint for the futureAs South Africa’s state capacity continues to crumble, Sakeliga’s approach is beginning to look less like an experiment and more like a model for the future. The organisation now represents thousands of businesses and has become a powerful legal and moral voice for functional communities.“Our aim is not to run towns forever,” Le Roux says. “It’s to help people rediscover self-governance and community responsibility. Once that takes root, you don’t go back.”Asked what keeps him motivated, Le Roux pauses. “Hope,” he says simply. “Real hope. Not blind optimism. Hope that comes from seeing what happens when people stop waiting and start acting.”He tells the story of a small Free State town where a group of farmers and business owners took over basic maintenance after their municipality collapsed. “They didn’t have to wait for permission,” he says. “They just did what needed to be done. And you know what? It worked.”Le Roux believes that is where South Africa’s real recovery will come from - not from the next election, but from citizens rebuilding from below. “You can’t fix a broken system by waiting for the people who broke it,” he says. “But you can start building something better right where you are.”And that, perhaps, is Sakeliga’s most powerful idea: that the collapse of the state does not have to mean the collapse of society. It can be the moment when South Africans rediscover the power they always had — to build, to protect, and to govern themselves.

Director's Cut: Piet le Roux – How Sakeliga is taking on Ramaphosa's government and failed towns

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