The South African CEO who took on government corruption and won

Before Outa became the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, it was a single-issue civil action group formed to oppose E-tolls and its chairman, Wayne Duvenage, was also CEO of the Avis car rental company in South Africa.

Born in what would become Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1960, Duvenage said he has almost no recollection of his birth country as his parents left for South Africa when he was five years old.

His first four years of primary school were spent in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal, before his family moved to Newcastle in the heydays of Iscor’s expansion.

Adventurous, outdoorsy, and independent in his early childhood, Duvenage said he was not a good learner during his mid-teens and churned out marks just good enough to pass.

“I was a rather disruptive student and questioned the status quo too often, ending up in the headmaster’s office on many an occasion,” he said.

Former classmate and BizNews founder and editor Alec Hogg affectionately describes Duvenage as “anti-establishment,” never accepting authority just because people told you to do things.

In Matric, Duvenage pulled up his socks to ensure he achieved a university entrance pass and enrolled at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

He initially studied geology for a year, but switched to industrial psychology after discovering he had a strong interest in human behaviour.

After graduating in 1985, Duvenage’s first job was as a dispatcher for Avis car rentals at Durban Airport, where he worked shifts preparing and cleaning cars with a team of drivers.

He initially considered this job a gap-filler while scouring the market for a role in the personnel recruitment industry.

“However, Avis was an extremely dynamic company with a lot of opportunities for growth and development in the space of business leadership,” he said.

“Over the next 10 years, I took up various operational management positions within the company and became head of Avis’ operations in Southern Africa in 1996.”

Duvenage resigned from Avis in 2001 to build and launch the Whispering Pines Country Estate in Magaliesburg, a family hospitality venture that comprised a four-star, 14-cottage country lodge, conference centre, and wellness centre.

During that time, he was asked to manage the South African Vehicle Renting and Leasing Association (Savrala), where he lobbied and engaged with government and other transport and tourism-related bodies.

In 2006, he was appointed CEO of Avis Rent a Car in South Africa, returning to the company that gave him such tremendous opportunity for growth in his early career.

However, in 2012, Duvenage’s maverick nature would steer him on a different path as he co-founded the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa).

Car rental industry takes on E-tolls

Duvenage explained that the industry became aware of Sanral’s decision to introduce the e-tolling system around August 2010 and studied its implications.

“From an industry perspective, our research showed the scheme to be irrational, with all the hallmarks of gross inefficiency and potential corruption,” Duvenage said.

Savrala decided to challenge the e-toll decision in court, and Duvenage acted as chair of the initiative, which would soon become the face of the campaign to stop e-tolling.

Duvenage said a business-led initiative to challenge the government on one of its policy decisions was very rare at the time. “Until then, only Cosatu and the DA were challenging the e-toll issue,” he said.

He resigned from Avis in June 2012, although he would say that he had been planning to leave Avis for months and that the e-tolling saga made him stay longer than expected.

Later, Duvenage revealed the real reason he left Avis was because he had to choose whether to focus on the company or Outa.

“The time demands required to engage with lawyers, the media and the public was becoming pressing and personally, I couldn’t fulfil the duties of two jobs of heading up Outa and being the Avis CEO,” he said.

“I had to make a personal choice and having achieved a lot of what I had wanted to do at Avis, I felt it was time for change and made the decision to engage with my team and resign in 2012, to move into this new role.”

Duvenage was not paid for the “almost full-time” work at Outa, but was earning an income through a few consulting roles at the time.

In 2014, he formally co-founded consultancy eXcentris, offering leadership development programmes, training, and other mentorship services to companies.

However, Duvenage said the early days of Outa were tough as he and the other two initial board — Paul Pauwen and Michael Tatalias — were kept busy addressing the court challenge and creating awareness around their cause.

“The court case costs went from what we were initially told would be around R1 million to over R9 million in the space of two years,” he said.

He explained that government had employed a strategy of attrition through lawfare, with interlocutory challenges brought into the mix.

“At the same time they leaned on business by approaching the various boards of the holding companies of the car rental companies, to stop funding Outa,” said Duvenage.

“Our income dried up overnight, and our call on support from the public did not achieve the outcomes we needed to pay the lawyers, let alone the creditors who were assisting us.”

Duvenage said they came close to closing the doors of the organisation a few times. “However, had we done so, the public would have been left stranded,” he said.

“They would have to fend for themselves against Sanral and a host of connected cronies and Kapsch TrafficCom, who stood to become the beneficiaries of a very deceitful scheme. We had to stay the course.”

Outa victory

Outa successfully spearheaded a civil disobedience campaign and a majority of Gauteng motorists refused to register for e-tolls or pay their bills.

While it took years to play out, government finally gave in and announced the shut down of the controversial scheme in 2024.

In the intervening years, Outa expanded its mandate, changing its name in January 2016 to the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse.

It has taken on matters relating state capture, electricity tariff increases, collapsing water infrastructure, and Eskom targeting households with solar panels with new, costly compliance rules.

Outa has also intervened in South Africa’s driving licence card debacle, advocating for longer validity periods and highlighted potential irregularities with a tender for a new card and printing machine.

Although Outa emerged victorious over e-tolls, some battles remain — such as whether people’s existing accounts would be cancelled.

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi recently said that the cancellation motorists’ e-toll debts from before 11 April 2024 is in the hands of transport minister Barbara Creecy.

The Gauteng Provincial Government must also still pay 30% of the cost of the system, with the South African National Roads Agency paying the other 70%.