1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 WHAT IS AN ECONOMIC SYSTEM Swanepoel and Van Zyl (2000:77) explicitly explain an economic system as a “set of distinctive mechanisms, institutions, organizations, rules and orders which are used to address some issues common to all economies." It is therefore clear that the four widely used economic systems arose from basic economic decisions or issues imposed by scarcity. The currently most consolidated and commonly practiced economic system among; The command economy, traditional, market and mixed, is the mixed economy. More economically developed countries justify this decision by stating that a balance should be maintained in a country's economy, so that all participants are represented in the mixed economic system. This continues to raise the question of whether it is the best of the four to be used so widely, especially by developing countries, which for the most part are still baptized by the traditional economic system. The level of transparency shown by economic systems still needs to be studied by paying more attention to the mixed economy as a currently commonly practiced system.2 SIDE REVIEW2.1 HISTORY OF ECONOMIC SYSTEMS2.1.1 traditional economic systemTraditional economy is defined as an economy in which society uses primitive tools for the collection and ancient methods of production of any good, relying more on knowledge transmitted generationally resulting in poor economic growth (InvestorWords, 2009). This economic system is the oldest or oldest as it has the foundation based on the economic response to questions with strong ties of custom. Survival habits are often reinforced by superstition and religious beliefs, thus preventing any change in the production process seen as... middle of paper... capitalist nature and socialist nature (Harvey. 1991: 19) Delays make the ineffective control measure5 CONCLUSION Evensky (2005:110) stated that self-love is the fundamental assumption that human beings are a homo economicus species, entirely motivated by self-interest that symbolizes the central market economy. It is proven, however, that self-interest is not adequate for a country to be economically and politically affirmed, so the public sector is added to the private sector. Therefore it has been beneficial for South Africa to implement a mixed economy as the system promotes its main vision as a country well. The vision is to uphold South Africa's institutional values ​​that mandate equality, freedom and dignity for all South Africans (Mtyala, 2014: 6) and this could not be entirely satisfied by either the market system or the command separately.