Indeed, the South African economy is on a downward spiral and that is unbelievably bad, not just for our growth prospects, but the rights and lives of women in particular. In many ways, COVID-19 lockdown restrictions simply exacerbated the effects of our country's poor economic choices and lack of economic growth.

Winston Churchill is alleged to have once quipped that one should “never let a good crisis go to waste.” When the European Commission proceeded to cobble together its historic 750 billion-euro Covid-19 rescue fund, it offered a perfect illustration of how that political wisdom could be transformed into reality.

When they consider how to root out corruption in government South Africans are fond of throwing around buzzwords such as "mechanisms", "transparency", and "accountability". These standards found in section 1 of the Constitution are fundamental to a healthy democracy, but they are thematic and need to give rise to real, substantial interventions - this rarely happens. Civil society must go beyond the buzzwords and enter the trenches of detail. Only then will it be discovered that the root cause of corruption in South Africa is found in two facts: There is overregulation of the economy, and Parliament bestows too much discretionary power on executive officials. Both of these phenomena incentivize corruption.

This Report has been prepared for the European Commission, DG TAXUD, for the project TAXUD/2019/AO-14, “Study and Reports on the VAT Gap in the EU-28 Member States”, and is a follow-up to the seven reports published between 2013 and 2019.