Free SA: Decentralise Language Rights – Empower Provinces to Protect South Africa’s Linguistic Diversity
Free SA has expressed serious concern over the content of and the approach taken by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in its proposed amendments to the Use of Official Languages Act, which entrench top-down, centralised control over language policy, at the expense of South Africa’s vibrant and diverse linguistic heritage. While the Bill […]
Free SA Warns: Flawed Hate Speech Regulations Threaten Rights and Privacy, Over 400 South Africans Join Call to Stop Government Overreach
Free SA, the Foundation for Rights of Expression and Equality, has raised alarm over the draft regulations issued under the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act, 2023, warning that the proposed implementation framework threatens to undermine certain core values embedded in South Africa’s constitutional democracy. In a formal submission to the […]
Free SA Slams Draft Hate Speech Regulations as Threat to Privacy and Freedom of Expression
The Foundation for Rights of Expression and Equality (Free SA) has launched a national campaign calling on South Africans to speak out against the draft regulations under the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act, 2023. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is currently accepting public comment on the proposed regulations, […]
Government’s Minimum Wage Policy Blocks Job Creation and Entrenches Poverty, Warns Free SA
The Foundation for Rights of Expression and Equality, Free SA, has issued a strong caution against the National Minimum Wage Commission’s proposed wage hike for 2026, calling it a “policy of exclusion” that risks deepening South Africa’s already catastrophic unemployment crisis. In its submission, authored by Free SA Director Paul Maritz, it argues that in […]
B-BBEE Review is Too Little, Too Late – Free SA Calls for Full Repeal of Race-Based Empowerment Laws
Free SA has launched a national campaign calling for the full repeal of South Africa’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act and related legislation, following government’s announcement that it will merely “review” the existing system. The campaign follows recent comments by Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Parks Tau, signalling a review of race-based empowerment […]
Free SA to Submit Strong Objection to Business Licensing Bill: Calls for Withdrawal of Anti-Entrepreneurship Legislation
Civil rights organisation Free SA will tomorrow formally submit its opposition to the proposed Business Licensing Bill, 2025, calling for the immediate withdrawal of the legislation in its current form. In its upcoming submission, which has to date been signed by more than 280 members of the public, to the Department of Small Business Development, […]
Free SA Rejects Government’s Business Licensing Bill as a Threat to Economic Freedom, Local Autonomy and Job Creation
Free SA has launched a national campaign opposing the proposed Business Licensing Bill of 2025, which seeks to centralise and control who can do business in South Africa, how they may operate, and where they are allowed to trade. The civil rights organisation has called the Bill a dangerous move toward economic authoritarianism, warning that […]
QLFS: “Recovery” for Whom? Deepening Crisis in Eastern Cape and Labour Market Masked by Misleading National Averages
Free SA warns that the recent decline in South Africa’s official unemployment rate to 31.9% in Q3 2025 masks a dangerously unequal and unsustainable economic reality. Behind the headline figures, provinces like the Eastern Cape remain trapped in deepening joblessness, while nearly half of South Africa’s working-age population is underutilised, a hidden crisis that government […]
Free SA Calls for transparent and inclusive engagement on Firearms Amendment Bill
Civil society organisation Free SA has submitted formal comments to the Ministry of Police, urging government to ensure that any amendments to the Firearms Control Act are preceded by transparent and inclusive consultation with all affected stakeholders. The submission follows growing concerns over the lack of formal engagement with groups such as lawful firearm owners, […]
Free SA rejects Polling Ombud proposal: A dangerous assault on transparency and democracy
Free SA is sounding the alarm on a deeply troubling development buried within the Draft Electoral Laws Amendment Bill: the proposed establishment of a Polling Ombud with sweeping powers to censor political information in the run-up to elections. This proposal represents a direct assault on South Africa’s democratic values of transparency, public participation, and freedom […]