I grew up in Johannesburg. Without getting soppy, those noisy streets and cracked sidewalks raised me. Like many who grew up there, I no longer live there, but it will always be my home. My home isn’t what it used to be. The streets are scarier and more blistered, the

South Africans have grown used to government overpromising and underdelivering. But sometimes, the state does take that one step further: it actively undermines the freedoms of the very citizens it is meant to protect, all while insisting it is “strengthening governance.” The Public Service Commission (PSC) Bill currently before the

In the light of the Department of Basic Education’s proposed BELA regulations, ordinary South Africans are once again confronted with a stark choice: do we allow the state to tighten its continued strangling grip over our daily lives, or do we insist that communities remain the rightful custodians of their

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

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.

The saying goes that if the US sneezes, South Africa gets the flu. Well, in this case it appears to be the reality, Washington is sending a massive viral load of deported criminals from the US to Eswatini and no doubt South Africa will also suffer as a result. Under

Few would have predicted that the Department of Home Affairs would be one of the few early bright spots of South Africa’s post-ANC political transition and trial-run coalition government. Yet here we are. While many eyes remain fixated on the packed-action, high drama unfolding within the Government of National Unity

On the 15th of July, the National Intelligence Coordinating Committee released its National Security Strategy (2024–2028) – a 35-page bureaucratic epic intended to chart South Africa’s path through an increasingly unstable world. True to South African policy form, it is an ambitious document. It’s also, in equal measure, vague, anxious,

At the height of any political crisis, a few essential questions inevitably arise. The first is diagnostic: What exactly is the problem? This is where we usually excel. In South Africa, we’ve become adept at naming the issues – widespread corruption, bloated state-owned enterprises, an oversized cabinet. We know we’re paying far

There is a certain charm to our government’s enduring belief that the answer to South Africa’s woes lies in yet another grand plan with a fancy title, yet another set of caging regulations, yet another bureaucratic layer of policy. Enter the District Development Model (DDM)—a policy so riddled with conceptual

SA has an odd habit of revisiting bad ideas with dogged persistence. The SA Reserve Bank Amendment Bill, introduced by EFF leader Julius Malema on August 16 2018 and now open for public comment, is one such example. Though it lapsed in 2019 under parliamentary rule 333(2), it was revived

Of late, a dangerous idea is resurfacing in South Africa. Like a whale that circumvents the globe only to pop its head out in the waters of Cape Town every couple of years, the idea of nationalising the South African Reserve Bank just does not want to go away. Spearheaded

South Africa for the past three decades has faced a stubborn one way ideological street of ever-expanding centralisation. It is therefore both rare and refreshing to observe a ministerial response that is measured, constitutional, and receptive to civic critique. Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube’s recently published Guidelines for the

In politics, the phrase “too big to fail” often just means “too interconnected to be allowed to fail”. The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is one such beast deemed to be too big to fail. Since 2009, the SABC has received the equivalent of nearly R9 billion in taxpayer-funded bailouts.

South Africa’s draft policy on satellite internet reads like a press release from a government at war with itself. On the one hand, it concedes—almost grudgingly—that access to fast, reliable internet is good for economic growth. On the other, it spends the better part of its pages convincing an imaginary

Every hour in South Africa, nearly three people are murdered. Every day, over 500 people are assaulted with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm. On average, 139 rapes occur daily. These aren’t abstract figures, but reflect the lived experiences of thousands of South Africans and are brutal reminders of lives

The ANC’s Crisis of Idealessness—and the Road Back to Democratic Renewal The pathology of the ANC is a subject of growing fascination and frustration. For years now, South Africans both outside and in the party have been debating what exactly is wrong with the former behemoth that came to power

Each year, the South African Parliament issues a quiet but important invitation to the general public, inviting ordinary South Africans to submit proposals and suggestions to amend the Constitution. It’s a democratic gesture and part of the machinery that keeps our republic healthy and responsive, even if the mere gesture

Politics has always had its rituals, formalities, and its theatre. In recent times, we’ve seen a resurgence of political conversation, not just in South Africa, but across the globe. There were fraught negotiations along the Ukrainian border and deepening partisan tensions in the United States, and now in Germany, where

South Africa’s great constitutional experiment is part modern republic, part post-liberation compromise. We’ve inherited a state both noble in its intentions and bloated in its execution. The Executive sprawls like a badly planned city, with ministries stacked like shipping containers on a listing vessel of political convenience. Our police force

SA’s future lies in a mixed economy with a liberated infrastructure grid, not a Soviet-style ministry dictating who may build what and where There are few sounds more satisfying than the crack of sekelbos splitting clean under a sharp axe: the reward of precision, strength and purpose. SA’s economy needs just such

As South Africa marks Workers’ Day on 1 May, Free SA stands not with the elites in regalia or the podiums heavy with empty slogans, but with the 12.2 million South Africans who want to work, but cannot.  Not because they lack will or skill, but because they have been

PSIRA draft regulations fail miserably. They are punitive where they should be enabling. They are theoretical where they should be practical. And they are political where they should be urgent. Written by: Reuben Coetzer At a time, more prevalent than ever before, when violent crime grips South Africa with increasing

When a government begins to resemble a corporate year-end function—replete with inflated titles, overlapping responsibilities, and far too many people doing far too little—it ceases to be a cabinet and becomes a congregation. South Africa’s executive, now swollen to 77 members, has long since abandoned (arguably never adopted) the lean

In South Africa’s long and painful journey from apartheid to democracy, the de-racialisation of law and statecraft has been both a moral imperative and a constitutional necessity. Ours is a society founded on the idea that race, once the central axis of oppression, should never again be the determining factor

In 1991 is die Wet op Bevolkingsregistrasie, die hart van die apartheidstaat se raswette, herroep. Dit was simbolies en wetlik die einde van amptelike rasseklassifikasie deur die staat in Suid-Afrika. Tog, drie dekades later, sit Suid-Afrika steeds met talle stukke wetgewing wat, ironies genoeg, rasseklassifikasie nie net subtiel impliseer nie,

By Reuben Coetzer, Free SA spokesperson In South Africa, policy reform often arrives like a postmarked letter from the past—late, smudged, and slightly irrelevant by the time it reaches its destination. So it is with the recent call by the DA GNU Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies for public

By Reuben Coetzer, Free SA spokesperson If words were actions, South Africa would have the sleekest, most efficient government on the planet. Budget speeches and reform proposals promise leaner administration, cost-cutting, and a “capable state.” Yet, year after year, we remain burdened with an overstuffed executive and a civil service

by Paul Maritz, Director at Free SA Quick question, dear reader: who, praytell, is the Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities? Or the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation? How about the Minister of Social Development? If you caught yourself hesitating, even just for a

by Paul Maritz, Director at Free SA The real minimum wage in SA isn’t R28.79 an hour — it’s zero. That’s the brutal reality for millions of unemployed South Africans, for whom the minimum wage is not a safeguard but a locked door keeping them out of the job market

Deur Paul Maritz, Free SA direkteur Die minister van arbeid, Nomakhosazana Meth, het onlangs aangekondig dat die nasionale minimumloon verhoog sal word met 4,4%. Na afloop van hierdie verhoging, so spog haar party, is die nasionale minimumloon nou R28,79 per uur. Haar departement is egter verkeerd. Die werklike minimumloon in

Deur Reuben Coetzer, woordvoerder vir Free SA Min onderwerpe wek soveel politieke emosie in Suid-Afrika soos grondhervorming. Die ANC dring daarop aan dat grond die mees fundamentele uitdaging en probleem van ons tyd is en dat radikale staatsinmenging en wetsontwerp nodig is om die foute van die verlede reg te

By Reuben Coetzer, Free SA spokesperson Democratic South Africa’s constitutional dawn in 1994 was luminous with the promise of non-racialism, the promise of a future of hope for all South Africans. It was a radical departure from our segregated, hurtful past—a firm commitment to treating every citizen equally before the

Deur Reuben Coetzer, woordvoerder vir Free SA Werkloosheid in Suid-Afrika is soos ʼn skip wat stadig sink terwyl die bemanning aanhou water uitskep met te klein emmers – waarskynlik ʼn spreekwoordelike Titanic, wat verdoem is tot ʼn sekerlike einde tensy drastiese ingryping plaasvind. Ja, die amptelike werkloosheidsyfer het in die

Deur Paul Maritz, Free SA direkteur Naby aan die einde van Herman Melville se 1851 meesterstuk, as dit vir almal aan boord duidelik geword het dat kaptein Ahab se obsessie met Moby Dick se dood tot hulle almal se einde gaan lei, skreeu sy eerste stuurman, Starbuck, vir hom: “Dit

by Paul Maritz, Director at Free SA The South African government is currently considering further tax increases on alcoholic beverages, ostensibly to combat alcohol abuse. At first glance, this might seem like a logical and well-intended initiative. However, as with many simplistic solutions to complex problems, history has shown that

By Reuben Coetzer, Free SA spokesperson South Africa’s ruling class has an uncanny ability to learn all the wrong lessons from history. Every time we think we’ve hit rock bottom, the government appears with a fresh shovel, determined to dig deeper. Enter the National State Enterprises Bill, a legislative proposal