Centralisation Is Not Reform, Free SA responds to SONA
The Foundation for Rights of Expression and Equality (FREE SA) notes with regret and concern that the prevailing theme of the 2026 State of the Nation Address (SONA) is the further centralisation of executive authority, rather than the structural reform and institutional renewal South Africa urgently requires. While the Address emphasised greater presidential and national […]
Free SA: The President’s SONA Must Mark a Turning Point for Economic Reform, Fiscal Discipline and Global Re-engagement
As South Africa awaits the State of the Nation Address by President Cyril Ramaphosa, Free SA calls on the President to move beyond rhetoric and present a bold, measurable plan to restore economic growth, rein in the unsustainable public wage bill, and rebuild South Africa’s credibility on the global stage. South Africans have heard many […]
Say No to Digital Exclusion and State Control: Free SA Rejects the AI-Powered Intelligent Population Register
Free SA strongly opposes the Department of Home Affairs’ proposed Intelligent Population Register (IPR), a centralised, AI-powered digital identity system that poses a serious threat to civil liberties, privacy, and democratic inclusion in South Africa. The White Paper, which introduces the IPR, outlines a vision where access to essential services and recognition as a citizen […]
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 […]