Quarterly Review: April 2019 – June 2019

Quarterly Review

April 2019 – June 2019

 

FMF Projects

The FMF’s projects for 2019 include: consumer rights, economic freedom / 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.

 

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.

 

311 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.

 

INTERVIEWS on radio and TV number 100 this quarter.

 

Ad hoc releases mean FMF distributed 5 MEDIA RELEASES this quarter. See projects below for more information.

 

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.

 

In the right-hand column, the FMF’s website has three “windows” to our social media making it easier for our members and website visitors to access…

Twitter @FMFSouthAfrica: 4,919 followers

Facebook: 5,142 likes

YouTube: 393 videos; 2,535 subscribers; 289,321 views

 

Podcasts
FMF researchers Martin van Staden, Mpiyakhe Dhlamini, and Chris Hattingh recently begun recording weekly podcasts, on a wide range of topics. In addition to the weekly ‘Free Marketeers’ podcast which features all three of them discussing topics together, they 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:

1. Communal poverty and National Health Insurance – 201 views
2. The problem with exploitation theory - Chris Hattingh – 163 views
3. Dutch condemn EWC, free enterprise in Rwanda, and pvt security regs – 313 views
4. Empty words at Ramaphosa's post-election SONA – 417 views
5. Jarana ejects from SAA – 393 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.

PROJECTS (note: all articles, media releases and submissions are available on the FMF website)

 

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 alcohol laws, for example, raising the Minimum Legal Drinking Age from 18 to 21, have been presented to cabinet this quarter; similarly consumer-unfriendly tobacco laws are next.

 

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

6. Low business confidence to be expected by Chris Hattingh
7. Reduce restrictions on foreign business by Mpiyakhe Dhlamini
8. Regulation of Airbnb is draconian by Chris Hattingh
9. Inflation is possibly the most serious economic risk, not just in SA by Mpiyakhe Dhlamini
10. A tale of two eras: Mandela/Mbeki vs Zuma/Ramaphosa administrations by Temba A Nolutshungu
11. Free women, free the economy by Mpiyakhe Dhlamini
12. Bolstering intellectual property rights critical to innovation and economic growth by Jasson Urbach
13. Cuba is no example to follow by James Peron
14. Your work for Sars stops on Saturday – Tax Freedom Day 2019 by Garth Zietsman
15. Is vryheid Suid-Afrika se voorland? by Chris Hattingh
16. SAA’s Jarana hits ejector button by Chris Hattingh
17. After terrible GDP growth numbers, the time has come to abandon fiscal stimulus by Mpiyakhe Dhlamini
18. Democratising Capitalism by Bonang Mohale by Bonang Mohale
19. Want peace, prosperity, growth, and low unemployment? Follow the Constitution by Eustace Davie
20. Free trade is a civilisational achievement. Restricting it is anti-poor by Mpiyakhe Dhlamini
    
    

Media releases

1. Congratulations SA taxpayers - you've paid government. Now what you earn is yours!
2. SAA Financial Chaos: FMF submits PAIA applications re SAA and SAX overdue financial statements
3. BLSA CEO Mr Bonang Mohale receives the FMF 10th Luminary award for his contribution to SA’s business community and defending the rights of all South Africans

 

Evening event
On 29 May, Financial Mail Deputy Editor Sikonathi Mantshantsha presented Let entrepreneurship reign – less government and more entrepreneurship. Sikonathi discussed his view of the current South African political and economic landscapes. Sikonathi also discussed the state of SA's SOEs, specifically Eskom, and the myriad regulations holding back entrepreneurs & economic growth.

 

You can view Sikonathi’s presentation here.

Speaking event
On 9 July, Chris Hattingh and Mpiyakhe Dhlamini participated in Capitalism vs. Socialism: A Panel Discussion on Economic Theories. The event, hosted by student organisation Ratio Christi, was held in Pretoria. Attended by around 50 students and members of the public, the discussion was a great event for both sides, with each side getting ample opportunity to present its case for its preferred system, as well as critiques of the opponent’s.

Submissions

4. Submission on Tourism Amendment Bill
   
   

Financial Sector

The purpose of the FMF’s Finance Policy Unit is to promote the application of free market principles to financial markets. Current actions continue to focus on the “twin peaks” regulation of which the Financial Sector Regulation (FSR) Act is the architecture, and the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act.

Articles

21. Finance bill delegates huge legislative power to unelected people by Gary Moore

 

Video on Twin Peaks

Some years ago, the Financial Services Board (FSB) announced that it had “deregistered” over 15,900 financial service providers. The FSB did not specify race, but how much are you willing to bet that many of those deregistered were emerging black brokers and advisors? Now “Twin Peaks” (or Financial Sector Regulation Act) will further undermine transformation in South Africa. In addition, it will create an enormous bureaucracy with reams of red tape. It will cost an estimated R4,8 BILLION per year, every year, which is equivalent to 500,000 RDP houses or 5,000 new clinics per year, every year. Understanding the law and that it has zero measurable benefits is crucial.

 

The FMF’s Twin Peaks video can be viewed here.

 

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:

1. 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
2. Financing health care for the poor – preferably via state-sponsored vouchers, which the indigent can spend where they choose
3. Encouraging more private hospitals by deregulating the industry and eliminating Certificates of Need
4. Reducing prices and increasing health care quality through increased competition
5. 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)
6. Allowing the private sector to train doctors and nurses
7. Encouraging income-producing medical tourism
8. Retaining skilled South Africans and attracting others by removing the limit on skilled foreign doctors
9. Deregulating medical schemes so they can offer their clients exactly what they want
10. Deregulating pharmacies
11. Removing price controls, which send mixed messages to the industry
12. Speeding up registration of clinical trials
13. Giving those who pay for their own health care a tax deduction
14. Allowing low cost insurance options

 

Articles

22. The NHI: Analysis from a public choice perspective by Mpiyakhe Dhlamini
23. Election fever stokes the NHI fire by Michael Settas
24. Government focus on private healthcare costing public healthcare by Jasson Urbach
25. Patents are not a major barrier to medicine access by Jasson Urbach
26. The healthcare landscape after the elections: What can we expect? by Johann Serfontein
27. Intellectual property vital for innovation by Jasson Urbach

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 adopting a National Minimum Wage (NMW). There are currently an estimated 9.4 million unemployed – a NMW will just make it that much harder for these individuals to climb onto the first rung of the economic ladder.

 

Articles

28. Prohibiting prostitution is unconstitutional by Martin van Staden
29. Workers’ Day means nothing to many people – a consequence of SA’s laws by Chris Hattingh
30. Unemployment blight can be alleviated with the correct remedy by Chris Hattingh
31. Minimum Wage: A crime against the poor by Mpiyakhe Dhlamini
32. More businesses closing, urgent reform required by Mpiyakhe Dhlamini

 

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:

5. 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.
6. Superfluous government land be redistributed to the victims of apartheid as a substantial once-off compensation.
7. Pre-emptive clauses be removed from existing and future RDP titles.
8. In tribal areas, communities be allowed to grant private title over homesteads while maintaining communal rights over arable land.
9. 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

On 27 May, 66 titles were presented in Vuku. The second half of this year is projected to be very busy, with a very big presentation in Kwakwatsi in August of 200 titles.

The Christel House project in Cape Town was completed in April where, with the sponsorship of Growthpoint, 367 parents/guardians of learners have been helped to get a title deed, get a housing subsidy, and achieve certainty as to their status in the Cape Town housing lists.

Change a family’s life for the better today

If you would like to sponsor a title deed at just R2,250 (or a part title deed), please email gailday@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?

 

Articles

33. Expropriation without compensation sends a clear message by James Peron
34. Expropriation without compensation will not help its intended beneficiaries by James Peron
35. Expropriation without compensation is anti-poor and anti-transformation by Devon Windvogel
36. Stop government from taking your property by Chris Hattingh
37. Ideologie bedreig ons grondwetlike legitimiteit by Martin van Staden

Media releases

38. Land reform bills threaten everything the struggle achieved
39. Restoring property rights through title deeds on Freedom Day
    
    

Conference
From 3 – 5 June, Leon Louw attended the 11^th SA Large Herds Conference, in Port Elizabeth. For many of the delegates this was the first time they have been exposed to such a wide variety of subjects. Allied to their business – farming. In many instances subjects raised were very new to the majority of delegates,

especially the agricultural cadets whom were sponsored.

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.

10. All law must be clear, predictable, accessible, not contradictory, and shall not have retrospective effect.
11. 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.
12. All law must apply the principle of equality before the law.
13. All law must be applied fairly, impartially, and without fear, favour or prejudice.
14. The sole legitimate authority for making substantive law rests with the legislature, which authority shall not be delegated to any other entity.
15. No law shall have the aim or the effect of circumventing the final authority of the courts.
16. 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.
17. The law shall afford adequate protection of classical individual rights.
18. All law must comply with the overriding principle of reasonableness, which comprehends rationality, proportionality, and effectiveness.
19. The legislature and organs of state shall observe due process in the rational exercise of their authority.

 

Articles

1. A free society is an armed society by Martin van Staden
2. State’s undermining of Rule of Law in private security regulation puts safety at risk by Gary Moore

 

Energy

The FMF is concerned about the energy crisis in South Africa, which continues to impact negatively on ordinary South Africans and has deleterious consequences for economic growth in the economy. Eskom, effectively, has a vertical monopoly on the entire system from generation to transmission and a large part of the distribution of electricity. This old, outdated model is slow to respond to changing circumstances. As a result, consumers are left in the dark and asked to consume less electricity during peak-demand periods. The solution: separate the generation from the transmission and distribution of electricity to make trading possible, including the sale of electricity across the grid from generators to large consumers (wheeling); establish competitive wholesale and retail markets. The unbundling of Eskom is the only feasible option to attract independent power producers (IPPs) and to secure our electricity needs moving into the future.

Articles

3. Renewable energy is a disaster and will collapse SA’s electricity supply system by Andrew Kenny
4. Carbon tax may be noble but it will add to SA’s woes by Chris Hattingh

 

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

15. Cut spending and corruption, or get used to tax shortfalls by Martin van Staden

 

FMF Luminary Award 2019
On 11 June, Bonang Mohale, highly respected businessman and former CEO of Business Leadership South Africa (BSLA) received the FMF’s 10th Luminary award in recognition of the outstanding courage and integrity he has displayed through difficult times, for his contributions to the business community, and for defending the rights of all South Africans.

You can watch Bonang’s talk here.

 

Evening event
On 25 April, Temba Nolutshungu presented Can 8 May give us competition in government with no dominant party – what are the chances?. Temba discussed the upcoming election, the state of the various big parties contesting the election, and possible outcomes of the different potential results.

You can view Temba’s presentation here.