What do you think of the National Dialogue?
Government’s much-publicised National Dialogue claims to be a forum to bridge divisions and promote unity, but many civil society groups, activists, and ordinary citizens feel excluded from the process. Critics argue that the Dialogue has become more of a “talk shop” than a transformative initiative. Join the conversation A democratic society cannot thrive without inclusive, […]
Free SA Rejects Government’s National Dialogue as a hollow exercise in control, not consultation
Free SA strongly rejects the so-called “National Dialogue” spearheaded by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration as a performative and exclusionary exercise. Despite its promises of unity, this project is neither national nor a dialogue, and has exposed and probably worsened the gaping divide between the state and its citizens. Instead of empowering South Africans, the National […]
Cutting fat or just rearranging it?
Action SA MP Athol Trollip’s Constitution Twenty-Second Amendment Bill, which is currently open for public comment, rather boldly proposes the abolition of the office of Deputy Minister. He has some other proposals as well, such as tightening the rules on Cabinet appointments, and introducing parliamentary oversight over ministerial selections, but the most juicy nugget is […]
Civil society groups reject President’s National Dialogue as exclusionary
The President’s planned “National Dialogue” is being sharply criticised by civil society groups, who say it is “neither national nor a dialogue” as it fails to unite the country. Read full article here
0.3% Growth in jobs is not enough – Government must remove obstacles to prosperity
Free SA has warned that South Africa’s Q2 2025 year-on-year employment growth of just 0.3% should not be celebrated. Given that this does not even match population growth, 0.3% is essentially an economy in reverse, meaning unemployment is effectively worsening in real terms. All is not lost, however. Free SA has pointed to the Western […]
Building a Better Executive: Let’s Go Further Together
Parliament is currently considering the Constitution Twenty-Second Amendment Bill, which proposes to abolish the office of Deputy Minister and introduce limited oversight of ministerial appointments. While these are steps in the right direction, they do not go far enough in addressing the deeper issues of executive bloat, inefficiency, and lack of accountability. Closed: 31 August […]
Reject the Mandatory Insourcing Bill
Parliament is considering the Insourcing Bill (B19-2025). If passed, every organ of state would be forced to bring in-house a long list of functions – from security and cleaning to IT, transport, auditing and even catering. The Bill obliges departments and municipalities to insource all of these services, with outsourcing allowed only in rare, tightly-controlled […]
Free SA Launches campaign to oppose Mandatory Insourcing Bill
The Foundation for Rights of Expression and Equality (Free SA) today announced a nationwide mobilisation to halt the Public Service Insourcing Bill (B19-2025). The draft legislation, now before Parliament, would compel every organ of state to absorb a wide range of functions in-house, including security, cleaning, information technology, transport, auditing, and catering, while permitting outsourcing […]
Is the South African government doing enough to combat farm attacks and farm murders?
The attacks and murders of farmers and rural workers in South Africa have become an international crisis, as the U.S. State Department has recently called these killings “heinous crimes.” This raises the clear question: Is the South African government doing enough? In support of @POTUS Executive Orders, DRL just returned from a trip to South […]
GNU without results
In his book Common Sense, Thomas Paine famously wrote that “(i)t is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies”. Paine clearly did not have South Africa’s Government of National Unity in mind as it remains profoundly clear that the GNU still battles to unite behind common sense governance. But this national coalition certainly […]