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SA history of disrespect for property rights

20 June 2018

Tragedies, such as legislated racism and disrespect for individual and property rights are generally manufactured by individuals with malign political intentions. ...

FMF NEWSLETTER 20 June 2018

20 June 2018

Weekly newsletter...

Gauteng government is undermining constitutional democracy

19 June 2018

Some in government believe that they were given carte blanche when they were elected....

Trump was right, South Africa is a 'crime ridden mess'

18 June 2018

It was horror at the Alexandra Community Health Centre two weeks ago when an unknown group of men armed with knives stormed the clinic and...

Submission on Expropriation Without Compensation

18 June 2018

Apartheid’s characterising feature was its denial of private property rights to black South Africans....

Media release: Violation of the Rule of Law gave SA the Guptas and Zuma corruption

18 June 2018

The Rule of Law (RoL) protects citizens from abuse of power and corruption by politicians and officials and safeguards individual rights and liberty....

Violations of the Rule of Law undermine the Political Party Funding Bill

13 June 2018

The Political Party Funding Bill appears to be well on its way to becoming law in South Africa. Its intention to shed light on the...

Blame political elite for poverty and lack of economic freedom

13 June 2018

There has been much talk recently about the "inadequacy" of SA’s 1994 political transition, which led to the 1996 Constitution....

FMF NEWSLETTER 13 June 2018

13 June 2018

Weekly newsletter...

Media release: FMF Executive Director, Leon Louw, welcomes CEO Vuyani Jarana’s acceptance of his wager that SAA cannot be saved

12 June 2018

“I’m thrilled that Mr Jarana has accepted my wager,” said Leon Louw, Executive Director of the Free Market Foundation (FMF). “...

Consumer rights

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Media release: From nanny state to the nation’s baby sitter

30 May 2018

The World Health Organisation (WHO), made up of unelected well-paid bureaucrats, and the SA government are determined to protect you from yourself whether you want...

Media release: New Tobacco Bill anti-poor and racist; impact assessment missing

22 May 2018

The FMF continues to be a strong voice frequently heard in the media against draconian anti-tobacco legislation and, specifically, the recently published Control of Tobacco...

Media release: Small business dismisses new tobacco Bill as war against the poor

15 May 2018

A coalition of 14 associations, representing over 1.3 million South Africans working in the restaurant, tavern and hospitality industry, and in small business, have written...

Media release: Plain packaging: Five years of failure! An open letter to WHO Director Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus

22 March 2018

“Five Years of Failure!” That’s the message a global coalition of 62 think tanks and rights advocates are sending to the new WHO Director Dr....

Angels and demons and the draconian liquor amendment bill

19 March 2018

Liquor is such a demonised product. It is advocated almost as a lethal poison that evil-minded producers and retailers would wish to administer. ...

Raising the drinking age is condescending and tyrannical; doesn’t work either

07 March 2018

Government appears intent on steaming ahead with the Liquor Amendment Bill, which will, among other things, raise the legal drinking age from 18 to 21....

Tomorrow it is likely to be your turn to have a freedom you value curtailed

13 December 2017

In a democratic society, can government collude with citizens to abuse and undermine the freedoms ordinary South Africans died to ensure? Unfortunately, it can....

Tobacco packaging: Anything but plain

29 November 2017

Why are smokers treated so badly? When justifying the proposed introduction of plain packaging and trying to legalise moral, ethical conduct in South Africa, the...

Media release: The Department of Health’s proposals are an effective ban on smoking

27 November 2017

Government’s interference a threat to rights of individuals, private property owners and bad for business...

Core aspects of anti-tobacco proposals fall short of constitutional criteria

27 November 2017

What, if anything, does our constitution tell us about anti-smoking laws and policies?...

Economic freedom / Growth

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Blame political elite for poverty and lack of economic freedom

13 June 2018

There has been much talk recently about the "inadequacy" of SA’s 1994 political transition, which led to the 1996 Constitution....

Media release: FMF Executive Director, Leon Louw, welcomes CEO Vuyani Jarana’s acceptance of his wager that SAA cannot be saved

12 June 2018

“I’m thrilled that Mr Jarana has accepted my wager,” said Leon Louw, Executive Director of the Free Market Foundation (FMF). “...

Media release: FMF’s executive director Leon Louw issues wager to SAA CEO Vuyani Jarana – R100K to charity if SAA profitable by 2021

04 June 2018

Leon Louw, executive director of the Free Market Foundation (FMF) is willing to wager SAA CEO Vuyani Jarana R100,000 that his three-year turnaround plan will...

Media release: SAA hiding behind “commercially sensitive information” – hearings must not evade public’s right to know

01 June 2018

The FMF is dismayed and disturbed by media reports that future briefings by SAA to Parliament may be behind closed doors starting with next week...

Lessons from Air India

21 May 2018

At the end of March, it was revealed that Air India’s employees would be given stock options after the airline is privatised....

ICT policy: Don’t fix what isn’t broken

08 May 2018

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have caused unprecedented change during the previous two and a half decades....

Media release: DTPS ECA Bill – void for vagueness and therefore probably unconstitutional

26 April 2018

“The controversial Electronic Communications Amendment (ECA) Bill is void for vagueness and therefore probably unconstitutional in its current form and unlikely to become law,” said...

NOTE TO THE MEDIA

26 April 2018

The news that SAA needs another immediate bailout of R5 bn on top of the R20 bn already provided and a further R9.2 bn in...

A trend that builds a nation

25 April 2018

Two major studies on poverty in South Africa have caused understandable alarums this last year. ...

South Africa should follow winners, not losers

17 April 2018

Nationalisation of property, inefficient State-owned enterprises, raising the legal drinking age from 18 to 21, and higher taxes in a low-growth environment. These ideas have...

Energy

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Media release: Give Eskom – nothing – and certainly not R67 billion

17 May 2018

National energy regulator Nersa should grant power utility Eskom ‘nothing’ until costs have been prudently and efficiently determined....

No reason for government to be involved in personal electricity generation

16 May 2018

The draft Rules for Registration of Small-Scale Embedded Generation published by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) state that every form of home...

How government failed to privatise Eskom

13 December 2017

Government is preventing the private sector from being a solution to South Africa’s rising poverty and declining economy, despite the protestations of policy-makers and bureaucrats....

South African taxpayer to foot Eskom’s debt bill

23 October 2017

Eskom’s latest annual financial statements record irregular expenditure of almost R3bn...

Business Day column: Why is the state ignoring its own power policy?

04 September 2017

Exporting coal to Newcastle — that’s what Eskom proposes. The coal-to-Newcastle idiom arose because England’s Newcastle prospered for centuries by exporting coal. ...

Business Day column: Eskom is victim of bad policies and absurd expectations

25 March 2015

AS PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown has no idea why Eskom’s four top executives are incoherent, she suspended them....

Financial sector

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Reinforcing the rand

30 May 2018

The invention of money allowed people to replace their original system of trade, which was barter. Instead of swapping one good or service for another,...

Free at last – Tax Freedom Day 2018

11 May 2018

On Sunday, 13 May, South Africans stop working for the state and start working for themselves. ...

Media release: Congratulations SA tax payers – you can now keep your own money

10 May 2018

Before you earn a cent, government takes a chunk out of your pay packet in taxes....

TEASER: When is Tax Freedom Day 2018?

09 May 2018

Every earner is taxed. Through one kind of tax or another, government takes a bit out of everyone’s earnings....

Media release: Far from protecting consumers, the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act and Twin Peaks cost billions and add nothing

26 March 2018

FAIS, effective in 2004, was supposed to be a significant advance in protecting unsuspecting consumers from ‘rogues’ in the Financial Services sector who were ‘mis‐selling’...

Poverty and inequality: Heed Mandela and follow the Zimbabwe example

20 March 2018

South Africa must learn from the Zimbabwe experience. During 2009 - 2013 when Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC was running the finance portfolio, Zimbabwe lifted all foreign...

Taxing people into poverty

20 March 2018

Tax has been a part of human history for millennia. There are records of farmers in ancient Egypt giving up a portion of their crops...

Media release: Minister Gigaba: Reduce bloated government before introducing new taxes

19 February 2018

Minister Gigaba seemingly has his back against the fiscal wall and will probably announce tax hikes in his 21 February budget. ...

Minister Gigaba – reduce spending and taxes to create jobs

12 February 2018

On 21 February, Finance Minister, Malusi Gigaba, will present his annual budget speech before Parliament....

The right to work and debarment in the financial market

29 November 2017

Who in their right mind would believe there is a law on our statute books which is interpreted and applied in such a way that...

Healthcare

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Drug makers slapped with a backlog fee

04 June 2018

The newly formed South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) – successor to the apartheid-era and largely dysfunctional Medicines Control Council (MCC)...

Media release: Young people and families hit hardest by gap cover limitations

29 May 2018

An unintended, but serious consequence of government’s drive to introduce NHI is that young adults and families will be hit the hardest....

Aaron Motsoaledi is crippling SA’s ability to train enough doctors

18 May 2018

Is anyone surprised that the programme that trains South Africans as doctors in Cuba has been a catastrophic failure?...

Warning: SA's centrist medical schemes strategy will bring higher costs and poorer quality

16 May 2018

News from the medical schemes regulator, the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS), that it is pressing ahead with a draft consultative framework on compelling the...

The empire of medical schemes

15 May 2018

In recent days, many consumers, no doubt, have been receiving strange letters from their insurance brokers telling them that as a consequence of “demarcation regulations”...

The empire of the competition regime

15 May 2018

In the Common Law-Supreme Court framework, there is one law for the whole country crafted over centuries by the Supreme Court. ...

Media release: Health insurance disappears for South Africans

23 April 2018

The FMF is concerned that too few people are aware of and / or understand the implications of the demarcation regulations in the healthcare insurance...

Call to end SA drug approval delays

19 April 2018

The newly formed South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) – successor to the apartheid-era and largely dysfunctional Medicines Control Council (MCC) – has indicated...

Govt squeezing the life out of medical insurance

10 April 2018

Drip by toxic drip, the South African government is slowly and systematically poisoning the private medical scheme and insurance industries in South Africa....

LETTER: State is on wrong track

04 April 2018

For many years, the government has sought an equity partner for its state-owned pharmaceutical manufacturer Ketlaphela....

Labour

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Politicians approve economically disastrous and unconstitutional NMW

06 June 2018

The politicians who approved the National Minimum Wage (NMW) Bill appear to believe that they live in an Alice in Wonderland world in which they...

Job Seekers Exemption Certificates: Just Let Me Work!

02 May 2018

Government should help the jobless to help themselves by removing the obstacles that prevent them from selling their labour at the best price and under...

NMW to cause economic havoc in rural areas and destroy SA job opportunities

29 March 2018

Researchers exhorting the SA government to implement the NMW reported that they could find no studies showing high job losses from the institution of minimum...

Set South Africa’s forgotten people free – in defence of the unemployed

21 February 2018

Mr Ramaphosa, like most South Africans I am relieved that you have ascended to the country’s highest political post. ...

Media release: Failure to respect constitutional rights causes mass unemployment

24 January 2018

If you have no work, no money and a hungry family, what pay would you work for?...

The minimum wage magic wand

16 January 2018

Would an accountant worth his salt advocate that the best way to keep a business running is to spend money which you do not have,...

A message for Cyril about the 9.422 million unemployed – Just Let Them Work!

21 December 2017

I address this article to Cyril Ramaphosa, the newly elected President of the ANC en route to the Presidency of South Africa....

Business Day column: Catastrophic jobless rate warrants institution of state of emergency

13 December 2017

SA’s unemployment rate is so catastrophic that a state of emergency should be declared....

The truth about South Africa’s mass unemployment

06 December 2017

I have a vision of millions of people, with new hope in their hearts, knocking on doors, saying “I am exempt from the labour laws....

Failure to respect constitutional rights causes mass unemployment

06 December 2017

South Africa’s unemployed people are subjected to the appalling indignity of being denied the right to negotiate freely with potential employers who, in turn, are...

Land reform

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SA history of disrespect for property rights

20 June 2018

Tragedies, such as legislated racism and disrespect for individual and property rights are generally manufactured by individuals with malign political intentions. ...

Gauteng government is undermining constitutional democracy

19 June 2018

Some in government believe that they were given carte blanche when they were elected....

Media release: Expropriation without compensation (EWC) is a betrayal of the struggle

25 May 2018

“Expropriation without compensation (EWC) is a betrayal of the struggle and the most ominious reversal on the road to true liberation for black South Africans...

Snake in the grass with Joburg housing policy

23 May 2018

Something all politically-conscious South Africans often forget is that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions....

Six myths about the land question that must be exposed

18 May 2018

Parliament plans to change the property clause in our constitution to allow the state to expropriate land without compensation. ...

Unconstitutional subdivision restriction the major obstacle to rapid land reform

14 May 2018

If the constitutionality of the Subdivision of Agricultural Land Act (Act 70 of 1970) was challenged in the Constitutional Court it would likely lead to...

Media release: Government’s two-week extension to the comment period on Expropriation Without Compensation is an insult to democracy

11 May 2018

Changes to tobacco laws have been discussed and commented on for over five years....

Expropriation without compensation would affect the rule of law

09 May 2018

The Expropriation Act authorises government expropriation of private property for market-value compensation. ...

Absurdity of South Africa’s estate agency laws

08 May 2018

We all want to see a growing economy that allows people the dignity of work and to improve their living standards. This applies to every...

Media release: Only 45 days to comment on changing S 25 of the Constitution – the property rights clause – is irresponsible and anti-democratic

19 April 2018

The Free Market Foundation is appalled and alarmed that expropriation without compensation of property (EWC), probably South Africa’s most important constitutional debate since the 1996...

Rule of law / Law

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Media release: Violation of the Rule of Law gave SA the Guptas and Zuma corruption

18 June 2018

The Rule of Law (RoL) protects citizens from abuse of power and corruption by politicians and officials and safeguards individual rights and liberty....

Violations of the Rule of Law undermine the Political Party Funding Bill

13 June 2018

The Political Party Funding Bill appears to be well on its way to becoming law in South Africa. Its intention to shed light on the...

There is no need for the Hate Speech Bill

23 April 2018

In what spirit was the Hate Speech Bill drawn up? To add a moral imperative to South African law? To fulfil an aspect of social...

FMF media release: New Hate Speech Bill an improvement, but is still unnecessary

17 April 2018

The Free Market Foundation (FMF) welcomes the changes to the controversial Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill (the Hate Speech Bill)...

Hate-Speech Bill: A threat to democracy in South Africa

27 March 2018

On February 8, 2018, the Hate Crimes Working Group (HCWG) published a petition, widely covered in the media, decrying the fact that the controversial Prevention...

How the Constitutional Court may still save property rights

27 March 2018

That individuals and communities must have the ability to keep and own things they have earned, found, bought or created, is necessary for any free...

New traffic law inconsistent with the Rule of Law

27 March 2018

The illegalities of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Amendment Bill are too numerous to analyse in the space of one article. ...

Substantive equality cannot override formal equality

20 December 2017

It is now well-accepted in South African constitutional jurisprudence that the Constitution’s guarantee of equality in section 9 is not merely concerned with ‘formal’ equality...

Parliament’s surrendering of power to bureaucrats jeopardises democracy

07 December 2017

Did you know that when you drive 140 in a 120 km/h zone, you are not ‘breaking the law’, at least not directly?...

Request for extension of public comment period on bills gazetted during November 2017

30 November 2017

The departments of labour and telecommunications and postal services together published four bills on 17 November 2017 with hopelessly inadequate periods for public comment....

Transformation

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Trump was right, South Africa is a 'crime ridden mess'

18 June 2018

It was horror at the Alexandra Community Health Centre two weeks ago when an unknown group of men armed with knives stormed the clinic and...

HISTORY SERIES: FMF marches in support of informal business

14 May 2018

The ghost of Hendrik Verwoerd must be walking through Sandton with a broad grin on his face, says Leon Louw, of the Free Market Foundation...

Political correctness is supposed to protect me, but I reject its censorship

10 May 2018

Freedom of expression and individual liberty are prerequisites for a free, open and equal society as promised in the constitution, yet this freedom is always...

HISTORY SERIES: 1975 - introducing the FMF

07 May 2018

FMF founded 1975 to promote free market economics...

HISTORY SERIES: 1978 - Friedrich Hayek visit to South Africa

07 May 2018

Friedrich Hayek spent 28 days in South Africa in 1978 promoting free market economics...

HISTORY SERIES: Case brought by FMF’s sister organisation, the Law Review Project

23 April 2018

The reason why POCA and the AFU enjoy near-universal support is obvious: all decent people want the government to be “tough on crime”. ...

FMF wins Freda Utley Prize for Advancing Liberty

20 April 2018

February 2010 The Atlas Economic Research Foundation, Washington DC, announced on Monday, 1 February 2010, that it had awarded the 2010 Freda Utley...

South Africa: The Solution (1986…)

16 April 2018

The book, South Africa: The Solution, and the speeches that the authors Leon Louw and Frances Kendall gave on its main thrust of a peaceful...

Media release: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: “Here lies the drug to coagulate the blood of the bleeding nation…”

10 April 2018

The Free Market Foundation is saddened by the passing of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela with whom executive director Leon Louw and his family had a personal relationship....

Media release: Oxfam or Oxscam? Inequality propoganda exposed

16 February 2018

“Oxfam should be renamed Oxscam as they disseminate false news and failed ideological propaganda, and promote policies that, contrary to their stated goals, maximise poverty...

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