Broadly I agree, but as a South African currently sitting in the economic capital of the country: The article is way off, with a mostly rubbish conclusion(edit).
What happened to us started long, long before the collapse of SARS (our tax agency).
The collapse of SARS was the result of corruption, not the catalyst.
It wasn't the SARS reshuffle that bled a few percentage of our GDP into the hands of private individuals. It wasn't SARS who funneled that money out of the country (almost certainly HSBC). It's not SARS that is refusing to attend court dates for a criminal trial into the matter. It was a long, well planned and well executed hijacking of social structure and just jaw dropping corruption.
That Zuma dodged tax responsibilities is nowhere near as problematic as the arms deal [0], or state capture [1]
The New York Times completely misses the point with this article.
CORRUPTION is the root of collapse of a system of governance. A better argument to make here is that the IRS's woes are a red flag that should be jumped on. Trump hasn't paid much tax (like Zuma) and the Church of Scientology straight up bullied the IRS into submission.
Those are 2 very concerning thoughts.
To reword my argument: Tax colletion becoming compromised is the result of a larger societal impact from corruption upstream.
