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15 August 2018

In 1994, Nelson Mandela dedicated the day he was inaugurated as the first President of a free South Africa to those who sacrificed “and surrendered...

FMF NEWSLETTER 15 August 2018

15 August 2018

Weekly newsletter...

No investment without property rights

14 August 2018

President Ramaphosa recently deployed four investment envoys with a target of raising $100bn in investments over the next five years. ...

Submission on Climate Change Bill

13 August 2018

On 8 June 2018, the Department of Environmental Affairs invited comments on the proposed draft Climate Change Bill. This period endured until 8 August 2018....

Submission on Tobacco Bill and SEIA

13 August 2018

The Free Market Foundation objects in principle to the draft Control of Tobacco and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, 2018....

Grinding the jobless into the ground with job deprivation rules

08 August 2018

Much is written about inequality, decrying high salaries paid by companies to their executives as being one of its main causes, while no consideration is...

Media release: South Africa PLUMMETS to 37th in global property rights rankings, falling behind Rwanda

08 August 2018

On property rights South Africa was ranked 27th overall and 1st in the African region. However, South Africa's score declined by 0.65 from 7,00 in...

FMF NEWSLETTER 8 August 2018

08 August 2018

Weekly newsletter...

Capitalism is the only moral economic system ever to grace the world

07 August 2018

Capitalism is the only moral economic system to grace the world. It is the only moral system because it is based on individual rights and...

Government’s ‘malicious compliance’ with socio-economic impact assessments

03 August 2018

Since 1 October 2015, the Cabinet of South Africa has required socio-economic impact assessments (SEIAs) to be conducted whenever Cabinet approval is required for draft...

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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Capitalism is the only moral economic system ever to grace the world

07 August 2018

Capitalism is the only moral economic system to grace the world. It is the only moral system because it is based on individual rights and...

Trade improves human wellbeing

02 August 2018

Does anyone think Americans would be richer if each of the fifty states had restrictions on trade with the other states?...

Venezuela under the socialism of the 21st century – from prosperity to misfortune

01 August 2018

The economic collapse in Venezuela, undergone during the last two decades, is due to the presence of the ideological-political project commonly referred to as ‘Socialism...

Only established networks can handle the investments required to run a sustainable WOAN

23 July 2018

The idea of a wireless open access network – WOAN – is the central plank of government’s information and communications technologies (ICT) policy as set...

Media release: Banks need to justify to the poor why they are bailing out SAA

18 July 2018

The recent announcement by minister Pravin Gordhan that, at the request of state owned enterprises (SOEs), the banks will “help” SOEs with more funding and...

Here’s how you lower the fuel price

10 July 2018

The African National Congress and President Cyril Ramaphosa appear determined to lower the fuel price – in the midst of raising it – with Business...

Media release: Scrap the telecoms bill and revert to existing Act

10 July 2018

ICT provides the framework and infrastructure for every aspect of mobile technological communications. It is the backbone of the economy and a chief driver of...

Media release: SAA myths being peddled to delay the inevitable closure

09 July 2018

Three myths are taking hold in the media and among other commentators as to why SAA cannot be closed down. ...

Proposed IT law vague and confusing

03 July 2018

When a law is sufficiently vague and no reasonable person can make head or tail of what it means or what its implications are, that...

Do SA a favour: Close down SAA and pay all staff one year’s retrenchment package. Bargain!

28 June 2018

There is much hype and little logic in the hysteria surrounding what to do with SAA. A national asset? A flag carrier?...

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. ...

Financial sector

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Malema – leave the South African Reserve Bank alone

04 July 2018

Recent calls to “nationalise” the South African Reserve Bank imply that the Bank is a private entity ......

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’...

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...

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...

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....

Healthcare

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Funding figures vital for assessing the viability of NHI

24 July 2018

Despite Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi not wanting to commit to even a rough estimate of costs of the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, the failure...

NHI – What is the Union Mandate?

19 July 2018

Cosatu has been vocal in their support for NHI, even calling for the head of Aaron Motsoaledi as Minister of Health for his implementation delays....

How about private-run education facilities to train doctors in South Africa

18 July 2018

Is anyone surprised that the programme which trains South Africans as doctors in Cuba has been a catastrophic failure? According to Business Day, ...

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...

Labour

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Grinding the jobless into the ground with job deprivation rules

08 August 2018

Much is written about inequality, decrying high salaries paid by companies to their executives as being one of its main causes, while no consideration is...

Did parliament intend to introduce a fake minimum wage “exemption”?

18 July 2018

Is the exemption from the National Minimum Wage (NMW) provided for in the legislation deliberately and seditiously being torpedoed by bureaucrats, or did government all...

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....

Land reform

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‘Never again’ until next time

15 August 2018

In 1994, Nelson Mandela dedicated the day he was inaugurated as the first President of a free South Africa to those who sacrificed “and surrendered...

No investment without property rights

14 August 2018

President Ramaphosa recently deployed four investment envoys with a target of raising $100bn in investments over the next five years. ...

Media release: South Africa PLUMMETS to 37th in global property rights rankings, falling behind Rwanda

08 August 2018

On property rights South Africa was ranked 27th overall and 1st in the African region. However, South Africa's score declined by 0.65 from 7,00 in...

Will South Africa go the way of Zimbabwe?

31 July 2018

In February 2018, the African National Congress (ANC) government of South Africa joined with the radical left-leaning Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to approve a motion...

African judges defend Rule of Law

24 July 2018

A 1992 Treaty established the Southern African Development Community (“SADC”) to promote growth and development. ...

Media release: Never again – property rights must be protected

25 June 2018

The Free Market Foundation’s (FMF) Rule of Law Project has responded to the Constitutional review committee and made a submission on the resolution for Expropriation...

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....

Rule of law / Law

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Government’s ‘malicious compliance’ with socio-economic impact assessments

03 August 2018

Since 1 October 2015, the Cabinet of South Africa has required socio-economic impact assessments (SEIAs) to be conducted whenever Cabinet approval is required for draft...

Recklessly throwing taxpayer funds at court cases is unconstitutional

25 July 2018

With unemployment and social welfare at crisis levels and an actively shrinking economy, one would expect government to spend the little funds it forcefully extracts...

Media release: Subdivision and land use laws hinder land reform and are unconstitutional

23 July 2018

Research conducted by the Rule of Law Project has found that two Acts of Parliament dealing with land use are unconstitutional and are proving to...

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. ...

Transformation

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Freedom and prosperity for all

01 August 2018

Given the current economic situation in the country characterised by low growth, more people are coming to appreciate the sound moral, philosophical, and economic underpinnings...

Die tirannie van politieke korrektheid

27 July 2018

Vryheid van uitdrukking en individuele vryheid in die algemeen is voorvereistes vir 'n vrye, oop en gelyke samelewing soos beloof in die Grondwet, maar hierdie...

Liberty is the source of human progress

17 July 2018

Promoting his seminal book, South Africa’s war against Capitalism, the economist Professor Walter Williams averred that “The solution to South Africa’s problems is not special...

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...

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