In 2024 nominal average per person income in the UAE was US$ 49,400, roughly eight times that of South Africa’s US$ 6,250. On global rankings for GDP per capita, the UAE is among the top 25 countries, while South Africa ranks around the 110th, indicating the degree to which the UAE is ahead in relative living standards.
The resultant accelerating migration of many of the world’s most affluent people and businesses toward the United Arab Emirates is neither incidental nor episodic. It is the outcome of a meticulously planned and executed national model designed to attract capital, talent and residency.
Simultaneously, South Africa has endured a sustained brain drain and exodus of high-net-worth individuals whose departure reflects a deeper crisis of confidence in the country’s institutional, economic and security landscape. A direct comparison of the two jurisdictions reveals the scale of reform South Africa must undertake to recover its competitiveness.
Fiscal regimes and the treatment of capital
The UAE has constructed one of the world’s most explicitly pro-capital and pro-market fiscal environments. It imposes no personal income tax, no capital gains tax, no inheritance tax and no net-wealth tax.
Corporate taxation remains modest, calibrated with strategic intention and complemented by free zones that offer full foreign ownership, streamlined incorporation and relatively frictionless business operations. This architecture does more than preserve capital. It amplifies it. For globally mobile individuals and businesses accustomed to complex tax burdens and unpredictable policy shifts, the UAE’s clarity and consistency act as a powerful magnet.
South Africa’s fiscal regime operates at the far opposite end of the spectrum. Progressive income taxes that reach high maximum marginal rates at very low dollar thresholds, high capital-gains taxes not inflation indexed, 
punishing estate duties and an intricate corporate-tax system, steadily erode any jurisdictional attractiveness.
Political discourse periodically floating the possibility of property confiscation and additional taxes injects further unease into long-term financial planning. For families whose time horizons stretch across generations, such uncertainty is a decisive factor.
Residency, visas and regulatory friction
Dr Brian Benfield | Retired Professor | Department of Economics | University of the Witwatersrand | Senior Associate and Board Member | Free Market Foundation | mail me |
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