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Quarterly Review
October 2020 – December 2020
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FMF Projects
The FMF’s projects for 2020 include: COVID-19 lockdown / Consumer rights, Economic freedom / Economic growth, Energy, Financial sector, Healthcare, Jobs creation / Labour, Land reform / property rights (with a particular focus on #EWC – Expropriation Without Compensation), Rule of Law, Transformation, as well as ad hoc issues as they arise.
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Media
The FMF works hard to increase its media coverage and reach as wide an audience as possible with its message about the benefits of economic freedom, growth and the rule of law.
208 ARTICLES that quote or mention the FMF or originate from interviews or media releases or were written specifically for the media or the FMF’s website were published this quarter. See projects below for more information.
11 INTERVIEWS this quarter on radio and TV.
10 MEDIA RELEASES this quarter. See projects below for more information.
The FMF is conscious of the power of SOCIAL MEDIA and we are working hard to reach more people via our website, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube offerings.
Twitter: 6,133 followers – up from 6,037 in previous quarter
Facebook: 6,381 followers – up from 6,261 in previous quarter
YouTube: 522 videos; 11,109 subscribers – up from 4,051 in previous quarter; 832,709 views – up from 442,909 in previous quarter
Our best-ever performing clip on YouTube (358,376 views):
Podcasts
FMF researchers Martin van Staden, Mpiyakhe Dhlamini, Jacques Jonker and Chris Hattingh continue to do weekly vlogs and podcasts on a wide range of topics. In addition to the weekly ‘Free Marketeers’ vlog which features three of them discussing topics together, they often also do weekly podcasts on topics of their own choosing. All podcasts can be found on the FMF’s YouTube channel.
A few of their podcasts:
- Expropriation without compensation could be the death of democracy in SA – 789 views
- In conversation with rabid capitalist, Hannah Cox – 570 views
- South Africa's new draconian Sports Bill – 450 views
- UK lockdown 2.0 and upcoming US election – 306 views
- Walking the tightrope - Analysing the 2020 MTBPS with Dawie Roodt – 2,283 views
Videos
Watch these two golden oldies recently digitised and uploaded to our YouTube channel:
South Africa: The solution
A constitution worth fighting for
FMF history series
We have begun the mammoth task of unearthing and presenting our 43-year history.
If you would like to know more, why not begin by dipping into our under-construction timeline.
We have digitised our photographs and added them to our website beginning with our 1977 (re)inauguration – see galleries.
We have digitised ancient, dusty VHS tapes and uploaded them to our YouTube channel here. A few noteworthy standouts include Leon Louw’s presentations, a prelude to the writing of South African: The Solution. There are 6 videos in this 1985 series beginning with HISTORY SERIES South Africa: The Solution 1 of 6. See also our 1986 privatisation conference: HISTORY SERIES Privatisation conference 1986 1 of 3 and our 1989 consumer conference: HISTORY SERIES Consumer power conference 1989 1 of 5
If you have any photographs or tales from FMF’s past, we would welcome you sharing them with us.
Cartoons
 
Previous cartoons published by FMF can be viewed here.
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Projects (note: all articles, media releases and submissions are available on the FMF website)
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Covid-19 2020 Lockdown
The coronavirus epidemic swept the world, and South Africa, in early 2020.
The FMF recognised the serious threat which came with the lockdown; a threat aimed at the country’s hard-won civil liberties after the dawn of democracy in 1994. Amongst the work that the FMF engaged in were: research, reports, articles, media releases, TV and radio interviews, podcasts with guests, extensive social media engagement, consultations with law firms on implications for peoples’ rights, and more. The FMF drew attention to the economic and legal implications of the government-imposed lockdown, and further advocated for policies which would boost growth in post-epidemic South Africa.
Media releases
- South Africa cannot afford another hard lockdown
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Consumer Rights
Far-reaching health controls with severe implications for consumers have been implemented or are under consideration. What is targeted? Products of greatest significance include tobacco, liquor, salt, sugar, traditional and faith healing, alternative medicines, baby food and junk food. Draconian lockdown regulations, for example the ban on the sale of tobacco products, and two bans on the sale of alcohol, had devastating effects on people’s livelihoods, and greatly inflated the prices of the goods for consumers.
Articles
- Government meddling in streaming will only hurt consumers by Chris Hattingh
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Economic Freedom / Growth
The FMF is a co-publisher of the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index with Canadian based think tank Fraser Institute. The index, published annually, measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom. The foundations of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete and security of privately owned property. The findings in the report unambiguously support the fact that economic freedom is strongly related to prosperity and growth; countries that are economically free tend to grow faster and be more prosperous.
Articles
- ANC followed Chinese Communist Party playbook in lockdown, sacrificing our freedom by Zakhele Mthembu
- Ramaphosa’s pseudo-economics won’t lower data prices by 2024 by Martin van Staden
- ICASA’s weird rationale for charging for emergency spectrum by Christoph Klein
- Capitalism is not recent or ‘Western’, it is natural and necessary for prosperity by Dr Dioné Harley
- Only economic freedom can reverse SA’s decline in human development by Riaan Salie
- The SA government’s tendency to punish what’s right needs to stop by James Peron
- Human progress, prosperity and happiness as a consequence of economic growth by Temba A Nolutshungu
- Indien sosialisme ons voorland is, wag daar groot moeilikheid by Martin van Staden
- In keeping SAA, government shows where its priorities lie by Chris Hattingh
- Economic freedom of Mauritius explains its current success by Eustace Davie
- Why economic freedom is vital for SA’s future prosperity by James Peron
- Social media capitalism and its robber barons, influencers and content creators by Zakhele Mthembu
- Pondering the minutiae of the Economic Recovery Plan is a waste of time by Leon Louw
- Without economic freedom, South Africans will never grow their own wealth pies by Chris Hattingh
Media releases
- Ramaphosa’s Recovery Plan – the good, the bad, the indifferent and what’s needed
- Retirement fund announcement reflects a doomsday mentality
Summit
On 29 October, Chris Hattingh participated in a panel discussion at the Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance (GTIPA) annual summit.
The GTIPA represents a network of over 40 leading global think tanks dedicated to advancing a positive view of trade, globalization, and innovation for the benefit of the world's citizens. The Annual Summits bring together Alliance members with world-leading experts to explore creative solutions to difficult economic, trade, and innovation challenges facing the international community. This year's Virtual summit featured distinguished keynoters alongside panels addressing: the future of trade and globalization; lessons for policymakers on managing COVID-19 economic and public health impacts drawn from a series of original country-level case studies; and getting global trade rules right to facilitate digital trade and cross-border data flows.
You can watch all the presentations here.
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Healthcare
The FMF’s Health Policy Unit (HPU) contends and persistently provides evidence that in all sectors of the economy, free, open markets with competitive private enterprises serve consumer needs best. For the indigent, it would be better for government to purchase higher quality healthcare at a lower cost from the private sector than to provide the service itself. The HPU argues that patients are harmed when government dictates to healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies and other firms in the healthcare industry how to manage their affairs, or at what prices they should sell their products and services. The HPU’s mission is to increase access to high quality healthcare for all South Africans.
FMF solutions to healthcare for the indigent
The FMF’s alternative solutions to improved health care for all include:
- Privatising the provision of health care – via giveaways of public hospitals to those who work in them or sales to those who wish to buy them
- Financing health care for the poor – preferably via state-sponsored vouchers, which the indigent can spend where they choose
- Encouraging more private hospitals by deregulating the industry and eliminating Certificates of Need
- Reducing prices and increasing health care quality through increased competition
- Training more doctors and nurses (the number of doctors is limited to 1,300 a year; this number has remained the same since the 1970s despite increases in the population and the disease burden)
- Allowing the private sector to train doctors and nurses
- Encouraging income-producing medical tourism
- Retaining skilled South Africans and attracting others by removing the limit on skilled foreign doctors
- Deregulating medical schemes so they can offer their clients exactly what they want
- Deregulating pharmacies
- Removing price controls, which send mixed messages to the industry
- Speeding up registration of clinical trials
- Giving those who pay for their own health care a tax deduction
- Allowing low cost insurance options
Articles
- Numerous problems plague the NHI plan by Sindile Vabaza
- More centralisation for NHI will result in more corruption by Chris Hattingh
- Ideal time to push ahead with health-care reforms by Chris Hattingh
Media releases
- To promote access to Covid-19 medicines, keep trade free and remove tax and regulatory obstacles, says international think tank coalition
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Jobs Creation / Labour
South Africa has an unacceptably high and rising level of unemployment. For government to achieve its stated objective of reducing unemployment and stimulating growth, it must urgently address labour market policies and laws that exacerbate unemployment. A significant part of our current work involves educating the public about the consequences of having a National Minimum Wage (NMW). There are currently an estimated 11 people million unemployed – a NMW makes it that much harder for these individuals to climb onto the first rung of the economic ladder.
Articles
- We can no longer ignore the effects of the minimum wage and other bad laws by Mpiyakhe Dhlamini
- Lockdowns Have Pushed South Africa's Economy to the Brink by Chris Hattingh
Minimum wage laws lead to surging youth unemployment by Riaan Salie |
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Land Reform
FMF believes that secure property rights represent one of the most important requirements for the protection of both economic freedom and civil liberties. FMF is very concerned about recent proposals to amend the property rights clause in the Constitution. FMF proposes that:
- All black occupied council-owned urban plots be converted to full ownership (“freehold”) – FMF is working with Ngwathe municipality (Parys, Free State) to convert 20,000 plots to full freehold.
- Superfluous government land be redistributed to the victims of apartheid as a substantial once-off compensation.
- Pre-emptive clauses be removed from existing and future RDP titles.
- In tribal areas, communities be allowed to grant private title over homesteads while maintaining communal rights over arable land.
- The Subdivision of Agricultural Land Act, 1970 be repealed to make it easier for poor individuals to finance smaller, more affordable plots of land.
Khaya Lam (My Home) Land Reform Project
Khaya Lam is an FMF initiative that seeks to reverse the evils of apartheid. FMF Executive Director, Leon Louw, notes: “Black land deprivation was probably the single worst element of apartheid. Since apartheid ended, little has changed. In South Africa today there are still around 5 million black families living as tenants or without ownership rights in houses they have lived in for generations. There has been no systematic conversion of these “council owned” and “traditional community” properties to full unrestricted ownership. The prospects for economic upliftment throughout South Africa through the Khaya Lam national property titling project are exciting and immense”.
Under the project management of Perry Feldman, the FMF’s Khaya Lam project is gaining momentum. In addition to Ngwathe (FMF’s pilot project), FMF is now working in Grabouw, Stellenbosch, Graaff-Reinet, Barkly West, Viljoenskroon, Alexandra, Thanda and Cape Town (Hout Bay, Vukuzenzele, Hillview).
Khaya Lam: Brief progress report
In Cape Town, 460 deeds have been registered in Bardale. On 7 October, Khaya Lam held a presentation in Clanwilliam, and presented 50 title deeds; Temba A. Nolutshungu attended. On 22 October, 12 titles deeds were presented in Stellenbosch; Temba A. Nolutshungu attended. On 14 October, 162 titles were presented in Kwakwatsi, Koppies. In Moqhaka (Kroonstad), the council has passed a resolution accepting Khaya Lam. This should be finalised by the end of January 2021.
Regarding upcoming presentations, the handover of 80 title deeds in Grabouw is planned for March or April of this year.
Change a family’s life for the better today
If you would like to sponsor a title deed at just R2,500 (or a part title deed), please email chrishattingh@fmfsa.org or do so directly through our website here.
PLEASE NOTE: We have a sponsor who donates just R200 per month toward Khaya Lam. His monthly contribution has so far sponsored 6 title deeds, contributing a whopping R600,000 into the economy. And another who sponsors one title deed per month. Why not join them?
Upward Globility: Whose Land is it Anyway? | South Africa
Upward Globility, hosted by Australian traveller Vale Sloane, focuses on stories of Atlas Network partners that are working to create prosperity for all by supporting local opportunities for entrepreneurship, education, and community growth.
In South Africa, the legacy of apartheid has left millions of families without the legal rights to the land they live on. In the first episode, Sloane travelled to South Africa to learn about the FMF’s Khaya Lam Project.
“Protection of property is sacrosanct and at the core of individual liberty and freedom,” said Temba Nolutshungu. Khaya Lam, which means “my home” in the local Xhosa language, aspires to help more than 20 million South Africans make home ownership a reality by securing fully-tradable freehold title to the properties they currently occupy.
You can watch the full video here.
Articles
- Amending the Constitution and EWC by Professor Robert Vivian
- African norms are not compatible with expropriation without compensation by Zakhele Mthembu
Media releases
- South Africa is undoing 26 years of progress with EWC
- Minister of Human Settlement, Mr Tertius Simmers, Stellenbosch Executive Mayor van Deventer, and the FMF’s Khaya Lam Director, Temba Nolutshungu, deliver title deeds to front gates in Pniel, Stellenbosch
- Another 162 full title deeds in Kwakwatsi, Ngwathe, Free State
- Full title deeds through Bond Cancellation. Land Reform breakthrough by Remgro, Cederberg Municipality and FMF in Clanwilliam, Western Cape
- Government starts to release state owned farms to landless blacks – but no full title for 30 years
Submission
On 18 August, Eustace Davie presented on the topic of the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights (ULTRA) Amendment Bill, 2020.
Speaking events
In October, Temba A Nolutshungu delivered an address to the Canada-Africa Chamber of Business, on the subject of property rights in South Africa.
On 24 November, the International Property Rights Alliance launched Martin van Staden and Jacques Jonker’s case study, Undoing 26 Years of Progress: Property Rights in South Africa. van Staden spoke at the launch and provided and overview of their research.
The study summarises and attempts a cursory quantification of two threats to property rights in South Africa (Expropriation Without Compensation & the Copyright Amendment Bill) and warns that government proceeding with these interventions will yield disastrous results.
EWC roundtable
In November, the FMF hosted a 1-day roundtable on the subject of expropriation without compensation. With speakers from various civil society organisations, the attendants discussed the grave threat posed by EWC, rule of law implications, as well as ideas for fighting the proposed amendment to section 25 of the South African constitution.
A selection of presentations from the roundtable can be viewed here.
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Rule of law
The Rule of Law is a Founding Provision of South Africa’s Constitution but this potentially powerful brake on the executive branch of government has not been playing its proper deterring role. A likely reason for this is that most South Africans do not have an adequate understanding of the true meaning of the rule of law.
There were 2 rule of law presentations at the FMF’s EWC conference.
These can be viewed here and here.
10 imperatives of the Rule of Law
The Rule of Law Project formulated the following 10 imperatives of the Rule of Law.
- All law must be clear, predictable, accessible, not contradictory, and shall not have retrospective effect.
- All legislation that makes provision for discretionary powers, must also incorporate the objective criteria by which those powers are to be exercised. The enabling legislation must, in addition, stipulate the purpose or purposes for which the powers may be exercised.
- All law must apply the principle of equality before the law.
- All law must be applied fairly, impartially, and without fear, favour or prejudice.
- The sole legitimate authority for making substantive law rests with the legislature, which authority shall not be delegated to any other entity.
- No law shall have the aim or the effect of circumventing the final authority of the courts.
- No one may be deprived of or have their property expropriated, except if done with due process for the public interest, and in exchange for market-related, fair and just compensation.
- The law shall afford adequate protection of classical individual rights.
- All law must comply with the overriding principle of reasonableness, which comprehends rationality, proportionality, and effectiveness.
- The legislature and organs of state shall observe due process in the rational exercise of their authority.
Articles
- Why the WEF’s ‘Great Reset’ is a utopian ideal by Rex van Schalkwyk
- Chile’s constitutional choice: lessons from SA by Martin van Staden
- Why SA should reform indigenous common law for the modern era by Mpiyakhe Dhlamini
- The pending Sports Bill would violate the Rule of Law by Gary Moore
Media releases
- The Economic Regulation of Transport Bill (B1-2020) should be abandoned
Research
Martin van Staden’s research on the rule of law implications of South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown was published in the African Human Rights Law Journal.
Abstract: The purpose of the rule of law, entrenched as supreme in section 1(c) of the South African Constitution, is to guard against tyranny. If the rule of law is conceptualised as a meta-legal doctrine that is meant to permeate all law in the promotion of certainty, predictability and accessibility, in the interests of safeguarding constitutional rights, this makes sense. Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the reach of state power expand at the expense of these rights. South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown, and within at least its first five months carrying the endorsement of the courts, has made a mockery of the rule of law so conceived. This article considers the constitutionality of South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown against the backdrop of the constitutional rights limitation regime within the broader theoretical framework of constitutionalism and the rule of law. This analysis is conducted in the context of some early challenges brought against the lockdown in four High Court cases. The article concludes that the South African government, with the partial endorsement of the courts, has strayed beyond the bounds of the Constitution and engaged in unjustified violations of constitutional rights.
The paper can be read here.
Submissions
- Submission on Economic Regulation of Transport Bill [B 1—2020]
- Submission on 2020 annual review of the Constitution
Presentation
On 28 October, Gary Moore led oral evidence before the Portfolio Committee on Transport, regarding the FMF’s views about the Economic Regulation of Transport Bill.
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Transformation
Some argue that freedom from apartheid has not made a substantial impact on black advancement. Others argue that for blacks to succeed they need government assistance through Reconstruction and Development Policies and Black Economic Empowerment legislation. Still others are of the view that economic freedom and growth, the development of a strong legal framework, and good infrastructure and security, are all that is required for the realisation of human potential.
Articles
- Christmas – the importance of emotional profit by James Peron
- We need community wealth funds, not a sovereign wealth fund by Mpiyakhe Dhlamini
- SA education: Time to give black parents and children more choices by Sindile Vabaza
- #WeSeeYou: Put government on trial for the profound injustice by Sindile Vabaza
- The power of stokvels – moving from passive to active capitalism by James Peron
- Gauteng townships deserve real development, which includes skilled foreign entrepreneurs by Mpiyakhe Dhlamini
Speaking event
On 27 October, Temba A Nolutshungu spoke at the virtual Africa Accelerating 2020 event, hosted by the Canada-Africa Chamber of Business. His address covered human progress in Africa, and the economic freedom-enhancing policies that African countries need to implement to ensure a rising standard of living for their citizens.
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TEL +27 11 884 0270 | FAX +27 11 884 5672 | EMAIL FMF@fmfsa.org
PO Box 4056, Cramerview 2060 | Block 5, Bryanston Gate, 170 Curzon Road, Bryanston |
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