Here's some sobering news.
In the tax years 2014 to 2016, assessed joint losses of all companies surpassed joint taxable income by R445 billion.
Those are some pretty hefty losses. Worse: 85% of all CIT paid to SARS come from just 0.75% of companies.
You can read more about this here: https://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-opinion/sa-enterprise-sector-critically-ill/
For context, this is the budgeted revenue for the 2019/20 period, courtesy of the Treasury:
CIT only accounts for about 16% of the tax revenue collected by SARS. The bulk of the income is from PIT and VAT - meaning PAYE, and the taxes levied on all the stuff you buy.
What this really signals is that the private sector is on the brink. Most CIT comes from a handful of large companies (we're pretty much talking the JSE Top 40 and few others), when you'd really want to see more CIT coming from smaller businesses.