Friday 29 August 2025 – TAX JUSTICE SA today calls for illicit trade to be declared a national emergency after a damning new international report revealed that South Africa is one of the biggest losers in an economic epidemic that is sweeping the continent.
South Africa is losing more than R250 million every single day to criminals in the shadow economy. Illicit cigarettes alone steal R28 billion a year from the nation, while the annual losses from illicit alcohol are an estimated R16.5 billion.
“Every rand looted results in a school not built, a hospital not equipped, a home not delivered,” said Yusuf Abramjee, founder of Tax Justice SA. “This crisis is robbing our people of their future.”
The new “Mbeki II” report compiled by the African Union (AU) shows the continent is bleeding even more than when former President Thabo Mbeki first exposed illicit financial flows a decade ago. Instead of leading the fight, South Africa has sunk deeper into the problem.
“We were greylisted by financial watchdogs in 2023 because the government failed to act. Yet still nothing changes,” Abramjee said. “Al Jazeera’s Gold Mafia investigation laid bare massive international money-laundering through South Africa. Two years later, not a single arrest has been made. Criminals are laughing at us, while honest, hard-working South Africans pay the price.”
The AU’s High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows (AU HLP) paints a stark picture of weak enforcement, fragmented initiatives and growing political apathy in the face of a worsening catastrophe.
Tax Justice SA says the crisis must be put at the top of the agenda in the forthcoming National Dialogue.
“This is a national emergency,” Abramjee said. “We are being looted on an industrial scale and the government must act with urgency. South Africans deserve protection from the criminal syndicates that are bleeding us dry.”
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