History shows that great societies often falter when their leaders overreach and ignore the limits of political institutions.
In the 2nd century BCE, the Roman Republic’s Gracchi brothers Tiberius and Gaius sought to address crushing economic inequality by extending liberties to the poor. They challenged a deeply entrenched elite, hoping to restore balance and give the dispossessed a voice.
Tiberius championed a land reform that aimed to reclaim vast estates held by the wealthy and allocate them to small farmers. His younger brother, Gaius, expanded reforms to include cheap grain subsidies and Italian citizenship rights, introducing unprecedented shifts in power.
However, their bold agendas outpaced Rome’s fragile political machinery. The elite senate reacted with deadly force: Tiberius was murdered in a senate-led riot and Gaius, facing brutal suppression, chose death over capture. Far from stabilising Rome their deaths sparked civil unrest and deepened factional divisions, accelerating the republic’s decline into autocracy.
Echoes in SA’s new levy plan
This story finds a striking parallel in the ANC’s current attempts at economic transformation. A new levy policy proposes to charge companies 3% of their revenues in exchange for automatic broad-based BEE certification — a move ostensibly designed to simplify a complex, often criticised system and raise billions annually to support black entrepreneurship through a central fund. The vision is appealing: streamlined compliance, reduced bureaucracy and a direct channel for funding empowerment.
Yet beneath the surface lies a precarious reality. The very forces pushing this reform face financial chaos and institutional fragility. Mounting debts linked to election costs, frozen bank accounts and looming insolvency threaten the capacity to responsibly manage even existing funds, let alone billions from new levies. The dominant party in the governing coalition’s record in addressing corruption leaves much to be desired, marred by scandals that have severely eroded public trust.
The 2018 collapse of VBS Mutual Bank revealed fraud exceeding R2bn involving municipal officials and party insiders. The Bosasa scandal exposed systematic bribery, with payments estimated at R4m-R6m monthly enabling the company to secure government contracts worth over R10bn, implicating senior figures.
The Zondo commission uncovered state capture linked to misappropriation exceeding R54bn, highlighting how entrenched patronage networks cripple governance. These persistent abuses cast serious doubt on the government’s ability to manage a multibillion-rand fund transparently, risking further setbacks in economic transformation.
The ancient warning revisited
The ancient lesson is clear: ambitious reforms without strong institutions and prudent governance risk deepening societal divides and triggering instability. Much like Rome’s Gracchi era, transformative change demands political maturity and resilient institutions as much as bold ideas.
Critics argue that the proposed levy will further strain small and medium enterprises (SMMEs) already grappling with increased VAT rates and rising operational costs driven by unreliable energy supply and inflation. Past tax hikes and regulatory burdens have contributed to slowed job growth and weakened investment confidence.
Supporters counter that predictable, sizable funding — combined with transparency and accountability measures — is crucial to redressing historic inequalities and fostering real, sustainable economic participation.
Reform’s true test
The success of this policy experiment will depend largely on governance reforms that strengthen oversight, build public trust and enforce financial discipline. Without these essentials the levy risks becoming a political powder keg, undermining the very transformation it intends to promote.
SA’s struggle for inclusive growth mirrors the warnings from ancient Rome. The fate of reform often hinges less on ideals than on the capacity of institutions and leaders to implement change without fracturing society.
As the ANC teeters on its own deathbed — crippled by scandal and mistrust — there is no guarantee that what follows will be better than what preceded it. While the promise of renewal beckons, history cautions that collapse can be followed by chaos, not progress.
The next chapter may bring upheaval, uncertainty, or simply more of the same, as old patterns persist beneath new faces.
• Kajee is a lecturer at Southern Utah University, a nonresident research fellow at the Korea Institute for Maritime Strategy, and a researcher for the SeaLight maritime transparency initiative at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Centre for National Security Innovation.
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