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The Free Market Foundation, founded in 1975, is an independent public benefit organisation that promotes and fosters an open society, the rule of law, personal liberty, and economic and press freedom.

News

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Deregulating the economy: A matter of urgency

20 March 2019

Small business is widely acknowledged as the engine of economic growth in both developing and developed economies....

Hope in the midst of the Venezuelan tragedy

15 March 2019

Between 2004-2014, the commodity price boom allowed the Venezuelan regime, led by Hugo Chavez, to control and discretionally allocate funds to cronies, buying their consciences....

Zimbabwe land lessons for SA

13 March 2019

American sportsman Yogi Berra was known for his quirky turns of phrase. One of his most famous was, "It's like déjà vu all over...

FMF NEWSLETTER 13 March 2019

13 March 2019

Weekly newsletter...

Misdiagnosis means Eskom’s problems will persist

11 March 2019

If you counted every hair on your head, that amount probably will not add up to the amount of times you have read and heard...

It would be deplorable to rush the expropriation amendment

08 March 2019

The parliamentary ad hoc committee on amending the Constitution to provide for expropriation without compensation said it intended to speed up the process and settle...

State’s undermining of Rule of Law in private security regulation puts safety at risk

06 March 2019

The Constitutional Court has declared that there is a disturbing dark side to the often-stated miracle of South Africa’s constitutional democracy:...

FMF NEWSLETTER 6 March 2019

06 March 2019

Weekly newsletter...

Unviable scheme has potential to wreck country’s fragile economy

05 March 2019

Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has accused the Hospital Association of South Africa (HASA) of “fear-mongering” and attempting to sabotage the implementation of government’s National...

Government must take steps to unbundle Eskom

04 March 2019

Should government continue to dominate energy supply as is proposed in the government's latest declared plans? ...

Consumer rights

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Why the outrage over sugar tax job losses? Or, “we told you so.”

20 February 2019

The Sunday Tribune reports that as many as 350,000 jobs are at stake in the industries reliant on sugar. ...

The problem of "fair‐labelling" and insurance

16 October 2018

We assign labels to things all the time. When you say, “Pass me a pen”, pen is the label we place on an object with...

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...

Economic freedom / Growth

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Deregulating the economy: A matter of urgency

20 March 2019

Small business is widely acknowledged as the engine of economic growth in both developing and developed economies....

Hope in the midst of the Venezuelan tragedy

15 March 2019

Between 2004-2014, the commodity price boom allowed the Venezuelan regime, led by Hugo Chavez, to control and discretionally allocate funds to cronies, buying their consciences....

Innocent small business owners targeted in Newcastle

01 March 2019

Imagine for a moment that after a herculean effort raising capital you are able to start a business....

Media release: Mboweni: invest in loss-making SAA or in taxis and trains for working people?

25 February 2019

South African Airways’ (SAA) days are numbered if Mboweni gets his way. Yet, he has allocated a further R6bn in state guarantees to the bankrupt...

Media release: 2019 Budget is “budget as usual” – except for the calamitous debt

22 February 2019

The biggest bang in the 2019 Budget is the absence of any big bang....

Redistributing wealth is no way to grow the economy

14 February 2019

Many South Africans and foreign investors are keenly awaiting finance minister Tito Mboweni’s Budget speech on February 20, probably wondering how he plans to balance...

Ignore Oxfam’s incessant red herring

13 February 2019

Oxfam is at it again. With their latest report we are back to the same old mantra: wealth inequality is on the rise and the...

Bad economics is killing rhino

11 February 2019

Now, I’m a fan of rhinos. I will admit the one that chased us one day wasn’t on my list of favourites at the time,...

Venezuela is a prime example of the human cost of socialism

05 February 2019

After an election marred by a boycott from the opposition and allegations of vote-rigging, Nicolás Maduro was sworn in for a second term as Venezuelan...

A Panacea for SAA?

31 January 2019

Yes - there is a panacea for South African Airways’ (SAA) woes. One that will end taxpayer bailouts and satisfy politicians’ silly desire to keep...

Energy

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Misdiagnosis means Eskom’s problems will persist

11 March 2019

If you counted every hair on your head, that amount probably will not add up to the amount of times you have read and heard...

Government must take steps to unbundle Eskom

04 March 2019

Should government continue to dominate energy supply as is proposed in the government's latest declared plans? ...

Government stealth tax to fund ailing Eskom

27 February 2019

Officially, for the 2019/20 financial year, government will not be increasing income taxes....

Eskom was doomed to fail. It’s core problem? Its monopoly

14 February 2019

It has become an accepted premise among some South Africans that the current government is responsible for the troubles facing Eskom, whether it is the...

Media release: NERSA must give Eskom zero

05 February 2019

Terry Markman presented the Free Market Foundation’s (FMF) oral submission at the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (NERSA) public hearings on Eskom’s tariff increase...

Government hubris leaves South Africans in the dark

12 December 2018

Industry grinds to a halt. Traffic stands gridlocked. Lights in dangerous areas go out. People sit in the dark. Whereas Christmas should usher in a...

Linear No Threshold (LNT) Folly: An Economics Perspective on Nuclear Safety – Leon Louw and Bonne Posma

11 December 2018

The nature and risks of nuclear radiation are widely misunderstood from the most advanced society to the least sophisticated societies....

SA’s daft electricity policy: 7 myths debunked, including ‘green power’

03 December 2018

The government is currently deciding South Africa’s long-term electricity policy....

To contain prices competition is essential in electricity markets

31 October 2018

A market for electricity has a salutary effect on the behaviour of all the participants in the generation and supply of electricity....

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....

Financial sector

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Momentum’s monumental mistake and the perils of mob-rule

06 December 2018

The executives of Momentum insurance appeared recently to have been coerced under popular pressure into making payment of a void policy, thereby upending over 250...

Draft “Bank Resolution” Bill is vague and violates the rule of law

05 December 2018

The draft Bill aimed at shoring up struggling banks violates the rule of law by authorising unequal treatment without identifying objective differences to justify it....

Media release: Mini budget – Zuma fiddled while South Africa burned!

25 October 2018

Tito Mboweni had the unenviable task of presenting a budget that was the consequence of the maladministration of the Zuma era with a Treasury running...

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’...

Healthcare

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Unviable scheme has potential to wreck country’s fragile economy

05 March 2019

Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has accused the Hospital Association of South Africa (HASA) of “fear-mongering” and attempting to sabotage the implementation of government’s National...

The Eskom of healthcare

04 March 2019

Election season is here and this past week we have heard about the ruling party’s grandiose National Health Insurance (NHI) proposal and its new springboard,...

Looming NHI disaster would dwarf Eskom

04 March 2019

As much as the country is currently focused on the crisis in Eskom, the nation seems to have lost sight of the looming NHI Fund,...

Private sector is best hope to train new doctors, nurses

12 December 2018

The South Africa-Cuba medical doctor programme has been a catastrophic failure, yet the South African government continues to send medical students to the despotic island...

International think tank policy dialogue on health, trade and innovation

03 October 2018

On 25 September think tank leaders from across the globe met in Bogota, Colombia to provide their perspectives on the policies and institutions required to...

Die NGV en die aanslag op ons Vryheid

30 August 2018

Hoe meer mag die staat het, hoe minder vryheid het die individu. Een van die grootste aanvalle nog op individuele vryheid kom in die vorm...

Media release: HMI report says nothing new but careful timing supports Motsoaledi’s contentious NHI Bill

28 August 2018

The preliminary findings of the Competition Commission’s Health Market Inquiry (HMI) into the private healthcare sector, the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill and the Medical...

Alternatives to the NHI

24 August 2018

The Department of Health’s Dr Anban Pillay has slammed the Free Market Foundation (FMF) for criticising the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill and has requested...

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

22 August 2018

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

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...

Labour

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The National Minimum Wage – a toxic, destructive instrument

12 December 2018

The National Minimum Wage (NMW), signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 23 November, is set to harm a great many unfortunate people who...

Open the labour market

09 November 2018

The results of South Africa’s official unemployment statistics published by Statistics SA in the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) reveal some alarming labour market trends....

Policymakers, is there no compassion for the unemployed?

05 October 2018

Unemployment has been a national crisis for too long leaving 9.4 million South Africans unemployed....

How to destroy jobs

17 September 2018

Jobs result from economic growth; don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg: Free Market Capitalism...

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...

Land reform

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Zimbabwe land lessons for SA

13 March 2019

American sportsman Yogi Berra was known for his quirky turns of phrase. One of his most famous was, "It's like déjà vu all over...

It would be deplorable to rush the expropriation amendment

08 March 2019

The parliamentary ad hoc committee on amending the Constitution to provide for expropriation without compensation said it intended to speed up the process and settle...

Land discourse being used as smoke and mirrors

06 February 2019

The land debate, as hackneyed as it is, is being used by both the EFF and the ANC as a proxy fix to whitewash various...

Media release: Poor black citizens continue to suffer EWC

24 January 2019

Marathon and Delport (M&D) informal settlement is the first official Expropriation Without Compensation (EWC) announcement. ...

Media release: Khaya Lam Land Reform Project kicks off the new year with 101 title deeds

23 January 2019

The Free Market Foundation’s (FMF) Khaya Lam Land Reform Project announced today that another 101 residents of Vredefort in the Free State will receive the...

SA can learn from Uganda’s dire history of expropriation without compensation

14 January 2019

The South African government has signalled its intention to pursue a policy of expropriation without compensation, based in part on the narrative that the minority...

Right to compensation central to protecting human rights

09 January 2019

Government’s push to water down the constitutional protection for property rights in South Africa by amending the Constitution should shock everyone of whatever race or...

Report on EWC conference

19 December 2018

Conference on security of property rights...

Survey Report on the Khaya Lam Land Reform Project – Jan Friedemann

13 December 2018

The Khaya Lam Land Reform Project is an unprecedented and truly innovative project which aims to empower individuals to take responsibility for their own lives....

Media release: Khaya Lam Land Reform Project brings joy to township residents this festive season

11 December 2018

The Free Market Foundation’s (FMF) Khaya Lam Land Reform Project announced today that another 60 residents of Tumahole in the Free State will receive the...

Rule of law / Law

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State’s undermining of Rule of Law in private security regulation puts safety at risk

06 March 2019

The Constitutional Court has declared that there is a disturbing dark side to the often-stated miracle of South Africa’s constitutional democracy:...

A free society is an armed society

20 February 2019

Section 12 of the Constitution guarantees everyone’s right to freedom and security of the person...

The Rule of Law and moving SA forward

19 February 2019

The Rule of Law is one of the ideals of our political morality. It refers to the ascendancy of law as such and of the...

When it comes to making laws quality over quantity is preferable

04 February 2019

The view that a legislature is only “productive” when it passes many laws in a short period must be challenged....

SA’s support of Venezuela’s Maduro tramples on the Constitution

30 January 2019

The South African government has thrown its support behind the tyrant Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela in the midst of a constitutional crisis in that country....

Exploring the constitutional definition of hate speech

14 January 2019

The Prevention and Combating of Hate Crime and Hate Speech Bill is likely to become law during 2019....

Media release: Police oversight regime is constitutionally inadequate

06 November 2018

New research by the Rule of Law Project has revealed that the Independent Police Investigative Directorate Act (IPID Act) contravenes certain notions of the Rule...

Stop making laws to which nobody adheres

09 October 2018

The law is supposed to fulfil two important functions in society: protecting people’s persons and property, and conflict avoidance....

Reduce corruption by reducing discretion

05 September 2018

South Africa and other societies spend untold millions on combating the scourge of corruption. Conferences are held on how to fight it more effectively and...

Affirmative action: It’s time to up the ante in constitutional discourse

29 August 2018

In “The Rule of Law vs the Constitution” (7 August 2018) Sydney Kaye writes of how the Constitution of South Africa itself falls foul of...

Transformation

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Black people can get out of poverty, if the government gets out of their way

28 January 2019

Poverty has been decreasing in Africa as countries have gradually liberalised their economies, yet the South African government has chosen to go in the opposite...

Is multilingualism the silver bullet?

02 January 2019

The Apartheid government’s Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974 forced black schools to integrate Afrikaans as a language of instruction....

Voucherising education to benefit low income communities

19 December 2018

In the 2016-2017 World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report, South Africa's primary education system was rated 126th out of 138 countries....

Population explosion: Is the end nigh?

03 September 2018

Paul Ehrlich says the collapse of civilization is a “near certainty” within decades – again. Well, given how awful his track record has been, I’m...

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...

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