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Data – let each provider decide for themselves

23 June 2017

The #DataMustFall campaign has been relatively quiet in recent months, after the flurry of calls for greedy companies such as MTN and Vodacom to do...

Any tax hurts the poor the most

22 June 2017

Low-growth and the resulting decrease in government revenue around the world, but especially in South Africa, has led to increased calls for higher taxes on...

FMF NEWSLETTER 22 JUNE 2017

22 June 2017

Weekly newsletter...

Business Day column: Benefit deniers and credit takers cling to colonialism debate

21 June 2017

Colonialism has benefits. There, I said it. I was not struck by lightning, but I might suffer eternal damnation at the behest of racists consumed...

The battle of the sectors - public vs private. Where should the focus be?

21 June 2017

In 2014, the Competition Commission launched the Healthcare Market Inquiry (HMI) into private healthcare after the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, approached them with...

Submission on National Development Plan: Building safer communities

19 June 2017

Understanding property crime as a market can provide a useful first step to devising strategic approaches to its control … heavier application of a narrow...

Media release: Intellectual Property rights under threat in SA

19 June 2017

South Africa needs jobs. Part of the solution lies in fostering a knowledge-based economy to generate growth. ...

Media release: Radical criminal justice reform: Decriminalise victimless conduct and keep our judiciary independent

19 June 2017

South Africa is renowned globally for violent crime and rape. Law enforcement in South Africa has a monumental job and the ANC Policy Conference at...

FAIS: Debarring representatives violates the Rule of Law

14 June 2017

The provision of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act of 2002 (“FAIS”) that vests in employers the power and obligation to banish (“debar”) financial-services...

Making America great again

14 June 2017

Liberty is what made the United States of America different from the rest of the world. It was at the core of America’s historical greatness...

Consumer rights

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Reviewing freedom of choice, as plain packaging tobacco rules considered

07 June 2017

Freedom of choice flies out the window when so-called ‘bad' choices can summarily be overruled or interfered with by government. ...

Media release: World No Tobacco Day: 31 May 2017 – FOCUS: Plain Packaging

30 May 2017

“Consumers, by definition, include us all. They are the largest economic group in the economy, affecting and affected by almost every public economic all....

COMMENTS to the DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY (for the attention of Ms Nkoe Ramphele)

03 April 2017

We note with approval that the National Liquor Policy reiterates that the 1997 Policy consideration of “giving priority to facilitation of entry” remains a critical...

Submission: Draft Liquor Amendment Bill, 2016 Joint Comment to the Director-General of the Department of Trade and Industry

07 March 2017

The draft Liquor Amendment Bill cannot be rescued. The Constitutional Court has already ruled its conceptually identical precursor unconstitutional....

Business Day column: Let us bust the myths and not believe the nonsense in 2017

20 December 2016

Since this is my last 2016 column, I was asked by the government to wish readers a joyless festive season and unhappy new year....

Media release: Concerned organisations submit joint comment on the draft Liquor Amendment Bill

01 December 2016

A joint comment on the Draft Liquor Amendment Bill was submitted by the following organisations to the DTI Director-General on Wednesday, November 30...

Business Day column: Spare us the farcical forums and pretend policy powwows

30 November 2016

Farcical "workshops", "consultations", "seminars" and "indabas" parade as compliance with the constitutional requirement that laws and policies must be preceded and influenced by public participation....

Business Day column: Beware the ‘fascist incest fest’ that will be the WHO’s COP7 tobacco meeting

09 November 2016

Who is WHO? Because of the answer, you should adopt the "brace position" suggested by airlines before a crash. ...

Business Day column: Beware the ‘fascist incest fest’ that will be the WHO’s COP7 tobacco meeting

09 November 2016

Who is WHO? Because of the answer, you should adopt the "brace position" suggested by airlines before a crash. ...

The rise of illicit tobacco

07 November 2016

The World Health Organization meets next week in Washington DC and will discuss the rise of illicit cigarettes, which are increasingly caused by WHO efforts...

Economic freedom / Growth

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Data – let each provider decide for themselves

23 June 2017

The #DataMustFall campaign has been relatively quiet in recent months, after the flurry of calls for greedy companies such as MTN and Vodacom to do...

Business Day column: Benefit deniers and credit takers cling to colonialism debate

21 June 2017

Colonialism has benefits. There, I said it. I was not struck by lightning, but I might suffer eternal damnation at the behest of racists consumed...

Media release: Intellectual Property rights under threat in SA

19 June 2017

South Africa needs jobs. Part of the solution lies in fostering a knowledge-based economy to generate growth. ...

Economics is certainly no ideology

13 June 2017

NEO-LIBERALISM” has become a convenient term to ideologise economics, treating it as an “idea” which can be debated and potentially discarded. ...

Like China, SA can uplift millions out of poverty

07 June 2017

THE free market is, without a doubt, the best arrangement of economic and societal policies to achieve individual freedom....

The first step to growth: Reject pseudo-economics

31 May 2017

Murray Rothbard, economist and political philosopher, wrote in an essay that there is nothing wrong with being ignorant of economics, given the science’s specialised and...

Constitutionality of South Africa’s competition policy

30 May 2017

This paper, as the title indicates, concerns the constitutionality of South Africa’s competition regime as can be abstracted from a reading of the Competition Act...

Submission on National Development Plan: Local government privatisation

30 May 2017

The monopoly production of services by government has proved a costly and thankless task. ...

Submission to the Department of Trade & Industry on the Economic Zones Policy and Bill

29 May 2017

The government‟s initiative to create Special Economic Zones (SEZs) is particularly welcomed by the Free Market Foundation (FMF) which has distinguished itself during its 37...

Media release: Johannesburg hosts Africa Liberty Forum – a first for South Africa

22 May 2017

This week on 24 and 25 May in Johannesburg, the Free Market Foundation (FMF) together with US organisations *Atlas Network and sponsor The John Templeton...

Energy

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Business Day column: Stagnation no reason for Eskom to celebrate

29 August 2016

ESKOM is electrifying. Not in the sense that it is electrifying rural areas, or mines and factories, but in a shockingly electrifying sense. ...

Submission to High Level Panel on ELECTRICITY – OVERVIEW

20 August 2016

Submission to High Level Panel on ELECTRICITY – OVERVIEW...

Financial sector

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Any tax hurts the poor the most

22 June 2017

Low-growth and the resulting decrease in government revenue around the world, but especially in South Africa, has led to increased calls for higher taxes on...

FAIS: Debarring representatives violates the Rule of Law

14 June 2017

The provision of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act of 2002 (“FAIS”) that vests in employers the power and obligation to banish (“debar”) financial-services...

Submission to the Davis Tax Committee on proposed Land tax and Value of property tax

13 June 2017

The Davis Tax Committee was requested by the Minister of Finance to inquire as to whether it would be appropriate to introduce additional forms of...

Submission to the Davis Tax Committee on proposed Wealth Tax

13 June 2017

The Davis Tax Committee was requested by the Minister of Finance to inquire as to whether it would be appropriate to introduce additional forms of...

Submission to the Davis Tax Committee on Macro issues and the Flat tax

13 June 2017

The Davis Tax Committee was requested by the Minister of Finance to inquire as to whether it would be appropriate to introduce additional forms of...

Media release: Work FIVE more days in 2017 than 2015 to pay for government spending

25 May 2017

Thursday, 25 May 2017, is Tax Freedom Day (TFD). Five days later than in 2015 and six weeks later than in 1994....

South Africa sacrifices peace, justice and good governance to State Owned Enterprises

23 May 2017

The trend worldwide is for wealthier countries to have large governments. South Africa has a government larger than expected and still growing steadily. ...

Countdown to Tax Freedom Day 2017

18 May 2017

When will Tax Freedom Day 2017 fall? Watch this space!...

Business Day column: Difficult times do not turn a bad budget into a good one

08 March 2017

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan addresses a briefing ahead of his budget speech....

Predicted Tax Freedom Day 2017 in light of budget speech

01 March 2017

Tax Freedom Day, this year, will be on 23 May – two days later than last year....

Healthcare

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The battle of the sectors - public vs private. Where should the focus be?

21 June 2017

In 2014, the Competition Commission launched the Healthcare Market Inquiry (HMI) into private healthcare after the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, approached them with...

Submission on National Development Plan: Promoting health

07 June 2017

If South Africa wants better health outcomes, it must have economic growth....

Paying for Intervention! How statutory intervention harms South African health care

07 June 2017

In 1998, the medical scheme market in South Africa was dramatically altered when the SA government introduced a new Medical Schemes Act. ...

Public health is in critical condition, and the NHI cannot save it

26 April 2017

The recent revelations by the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC) in their 2015-16 inspection report, which was presented in Parliament recently, has raised alarm...

Government’s NHI plan is based on squeezing out private healthcare

20 April 2017

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has been tasked with an important aspect of the "radical economic transformation" agenda, and that is to nationalise healthcare in SA....

Media release: NHI Demarcations Regulations – Two million people set to lose medical insurance overnight

19 March 2017

The Department of Health has requested that the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) grant a limited two-year exemption period for primary healthcare providers who submit...

Submission to the Davis Tax Committee on the funding of the National Health Insurance (NHI) as covered in Chapter 7 of the White Paper

17 March 2017

Submission...

Submission to the National Department of Health - National Health Insurance White Paper

17 March 2017

Submission...

‘Social solidarity’ stopped actuaries devising policies to suit low-income earners

22 February 2017

The final demarcation regulations drawing the line between medical insurance products and medical schemes was gazetted by the Treasury in December. ...

Why SA should take a leaf out of Egypt’s book on drug approvals

22 February 2017

Many problems beset healthcare in South Africa. A most frustrating one is the inability of the drug regulator, the Medicines Control Council, to approve medicines...

Labour

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Minimum wage a danger

02 June 2017

John Spiropoulos (The minimum wage and the moral economy) expresses concerns about the plight of the poor and high levels of dependency, which I share....

How to ensure more South Africans celebrate Workers’ Day as workers

16 May 2017

During apartheid, labour was heavily regulated, with workers and employers having to defer to the whim of government in how they conducted their relationships. ...

The National Minimum Wage will deepen South Africa’s unemployment crisis

19 April 2017

The proposed National Minimum Wage (NMW), due to come into force on 1 May 2018, is a quick fix to a systemic problem that will...

Anguish over low wages but no pity for the 9 million who earn zero

08 March 2017

The proponents of the compulsory National Minimum Wage (NMW) admit that some people at the lowest level of the income scale will lose their jobs....

Business Day column: A hugely important victory for South African labour

06 December 2016

IT MIGHT have been the most expensive day in South African high court history....

Want to increase unemployment? Here’s how

24 November 2016

I have a confession to make. I am not an economist and I have not read any of the studies that either promote or oppose...

Media release: How best to increase unemployment? Introduce a National Minimum Wage

21 November 2016

The expert advisory committee has proposed a national minimum wage of R3,500 to combat South Africa’s high levels of poverty and inequality. ...

Media release: NMW will be economically insane and morally reprehensible and based on three widely contradictory studies

07 October 2016

Using his phrase TANSTAAFL, ‘there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch’, Louw said that the fundamental economic principle against a minimum wage is...

Business Day column: Minimum wage is an idea of megalomaniacal and uninformed politicians

28 September 2016

BE AFRAID, be very afraid. SA has tumbled down the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index to its lowest level to date. During apartheid,...

German evidence shows SA is making a mistake on minimum wage

07 September 2016

THE proposed national minimum wage appears to be a fait accompli, with the actual amount being the only cause of disagreement between the parties at...

Land reform

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Land reform: restitution, not redistribution, is the proper vehicle

26 May 2017

The disallowance of foreign ownership of agricultural land and the creation of a race and gender registry of landowners are among the proposals contained in...

Media Release: New agricultural land reform bill seeks redistribution rather than restitution and is unconstitutional

02 May 2017

The Free Market Foundation (FMF) says that new land reform provisions contained in the Regulation of Agricultural Land Holdings Bill, ...

Business Day column: Racists do not trust black people with full land ownership

19 April 2017

To understand what the trendy left racists who dominate land policy discourse have in mind, imagine a post-apartheid mixed marriage couple who buy neighbouring properties....

Submission: Regulation of Agricultural Land Holdings Bill

18 April 2017

The hallmark of Apartheid was its denial of property rights to black, coloured, and Indian South Africans. Starting in 1913,...

Government land is central to land reform

22 March 2017

With politicians spewing anti-property rights rhetoric, we could but wonder what exactly sets the democratic government apart from the former apartheid regime....

Your property, your rights

08 February 2017

Everything you need to know about property ownership and title deeds...

Property rights our most important fight in South Africa

01 February 2017

For South Africans to buiald their communities, increase their wealth and make better lives for their children, their private property rights have to be secure,...

Why RDP housing is keeping people poor

21 December 2016

Most people would agree that racial discrimination characterised apartheid. ...

RDP housing inadequate for transformation

15 December 2016

Most people would agree that racial discrimination characterised apartheid....

Time to get rid of the apartheid township

08 December 2016

Municipal government throughout South Africa continues to own upwards of five million urban plots currently occupied by previously disadvantaged individuals. ...

Rule of law / Law

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The rule of Anu and Bel

07 June 2017

“(And) then Anu and Bel (both gods) called by name me, Hammurabi, The Exalted Prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness...

The Hate Speech Bill: another instalment in the march towards tyranny

22 May 2017

A curious right that has emerged from the rights culture of the past 70 years is the right to be not offended....

Public participation and impact assessments

16 May 2017

An Analysis of the Principle of Public Participation in Policy-Making, including Socio-Economic Impact Assessments, and their Application in South Africa...

Lipservice or participatory democracy?

12 April 2017

The subjugation of black South Africans to arbitrary, discretionary rule by officialdom and the whims of politicians was one of the hallmarks of apartheid....

South Africa’s Rule of Quasi-Law

05 April 2017

Quasi-law has become the norm in South Africa, with Parliament acting as a delegator of powers rather than the representative law-making body it is supposed...

Media release: Time allowed for public participation on ICC withdrawal inadequate

28 February 2017

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development invited public comment on government’s intention to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on...

The inviolable sanctity of individual liberty

22 February 2017

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of...

Business Day column: Hate speech law may well curb all manner of freedoms

22 February 2017

Beware — if the hateful hate speech bill is enacted, telling someone that they induce the episodic levator ani syndrome variant of proctalgia funaxal sacrococcygeal...

New SA criminalising hate-speech bill goes too far

17 February 2017

The Department of Justice has invited the public to comment on a draft parliamentary bill containing a clause that would create an offence of "hate...

Ever expanding governments breed corruption

15 February 2017

Publius Cornelius Tacitus, who lived during the first century AD, gave this warning: “The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws”....

Transformation

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Submission on National Development Plan: Building safer communities

19 June 2017

Understanding property crime as a market can provide a useful first step to devising strategic approaches to its control … heavier application of a narrow...

Media release: Radical criminal justice reform: Decriminalise victimless conduct and keep our judiciary independent

19 June 2017

South Africa is renowned globally for violent crime and rape. Law enforcement in South Africa has a monumental job and the ANC Policy Conference at...

Making America great again

14 June 2017

Liberty is what made the United States of America different from the rest of the world. It was at the core of America’s historical greatness...

Media release: Radical legal transformation: Embrace Mandela’s rule of law not apartheid arbitrary governance

13 June 2017

South Africa’s democracy is founded on the “supremacy of the constitution and rule of law.” ...

Media release: Radical healthcare transformation: Bring healthcare back to the people and away from government

12 June 2017

Affordable and quality healthcare is critically important to fight unemployment and poverty and achieve radical economic transformation....

Media release: FMF, COSATU and the ANCWL agree on taxes – that’s radical

07 June 2017

The Free Market Foundation (FMF) has opposed the idea of a sugar tax since it was first conceived and championed by health minister Dr Aaron...

Castro, the darling of the left, created an apartheid hell in Cuba

07 June 2017

I've been to Cuba several times. Everything worth looking at was built either under the Spanish or during the time of former president Batista (including...

Media release: Education needs radical transformation. Don’t leave our children in the apartheid era

06 June 2017

Radical economic transformation (RET) in education should be at the top of President Zuma’s agenda. The latest unemployment figures are testimony not only to a...

Media release: 23 years post-apartheid, South Africa needs to be radical about land reform

02 June 2017

Radical economic transformation (RET) means exactly that – a radically different approach to policy. President Zuma puts land reform high on the RET agenda, yet...

SABC’s abhorrent demands spell out government’s ill intentions

31 May 2017

The SABC’s recent shenanigans in Parliament illustrate quite plainly how government perceives its relationship with citizens:...

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