Alec Hogg: A watershed moment for SA as the tax base penny finally drops

Alec Hogg shares his thoughts on the breakthough regulation on retirement funds, a sign that 'intelligent governance' is returning to SA.
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Life's watersheds are often missed at the time but, with hindsight, long remembered. We have reason to believe South Africa is going through such a moment – one aimed at resuscitating the Nation Building spirit of the Mandela era, providing substance to the ANC's long-held claim that SA is home for all who live in it.

For a quarter century those governing the nation have grappled with how to treat its previously advantaged citizens. Unlike the historic European approach of simply expelling elites when locals regain control, post-1994 there was nowhere to send SA's 5m whites. The vast majority of whom are committed citizens who, lest we forget, voted overwhelmingly in a Referendum to end Apartheid – and many with centuries- deep SA roots.

As democracy dawned, other African leaders warned the ANC to protect this inherited taxbase. However, ideology trumped economics. A raft of social engineering experiments and tolerance of racially-charged rhetoric made many skilled people uncomfortable in their transforming homeland. So hundreds of thousands emigrated, taking their income taxes with them.

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