Quarterly Review: October 2019 – December 2019

FMF Projects

The FMF’s projects for 2019 include: Consumer Rights, Economic Freedom/Growth, Financial Sector, Healthcare, Labour / Jobs Creation, 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.

258 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 68 this quarter.

Ad hoc releases mean FMF distributed 7 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.

Twitter: 5,205 followers
Facebook: 5,349 likes
YouTube: 453 videos; 3,129 subscribers; 351,709 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:

• The importance of economic freedom for SA – 251 views
• IMF warning, traditional leaders law, and silliness at the CC – 468 views
• Bad news at SAA, worse news for the national debt – 726 views
• Tories take Westminster, EWC, and education protests – 270 views

Videos

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)

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

• Competition Commission retail inquiry does not stand up to scrutiny by Zakhele Mthembu
• Economic freedom in South Africa continues to stagnate by Mpiyakhe Dhlamini
• Time for South Africans to live and let live by Temba A Nolutshungu
• Working together, South Africans can grow a strong economy! by Eustace Davie
• Venezuela Is an Irrefutable Indictment of Socialist Ideology by Temba A Nolutshungu
• Teacher entrepreneurs could rescue South African schools by Eustace Davie
• A new airline could fly past SAA’s many dead ends by Terry Markman
• Icasa and Competition Commission have collusion confusion by Leon Louw
• Icasa presents a hackneyed solution to a problem it hasn’t identified by Barbara Curson
• New or higher taxes won’t work, and could be unconstitutional by Martin van Staden and Jacques Jonker

• Are ACSA Board directors liable under the Companies Act 2011?
  

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

• Low-cost healthcare solutions are vital to hit sustainable development goals by Jasson Urbach
• Achieving universal health coverage will require innovative new technologies by Jasson Urbach
• NHI leads to limited funding and denial of care, UK and Canada show by Johan Biermann
• Proposed NHI throws constitutional caution to the wind by Martin van Staden
• How other countries manage universal health coverage by Michael Settas
• How will the NHI Impact the Private Health Sector? by Michael Settas
• Removal of low-cost health plans prejudices low income workers by Michael Settas

Media releases

• National Health Insurance is catastrophic for SA’s healthcare and economy
• Government is intent on destroying private health insurance to pave the way for its NHI scheme

Event
On 21 November, the FMF presented National Health Insurance is catastrophic for SA’s healthcare and economy. Legal aspects of the NHI Bill are of grave concern and, despite the time lapse since the previous Bill, South Africans are no closer to understanding critical details such as how much the NHI scheme will cost, where the money to pay for it will come from, and where the country will obtain the additional personnel (both medical and bureaucratic) to staff the ambitious scheme. Dr Johann Serfontein, Patrick Bracher, and Michael Settas unpack the latest developments around the NHI, and its potential impact on SA.

You can view the discussion here.

 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.

Articles

• The unreasonableness of expropriation without compensation by Martin van Staden
• Strong property rights are vital for economic growth by Chris Hattingh
• Expropriation amendment harkens back to apartheid legal thinking by Martin van Staden
• Without strong property rights, an African free trade area is meaningless by Alexander C R Hammond
• The State wants to take your house and pay you nothing by Mark Oppenheimer
• The benefits of informal housing by James Peron

Conference
On 29 October, Chris Hattingh participated in a panel discussion, hosted by the Centre for Constitutional Rights, on the Land Reform Report. The three speakers outlined their views on the Report, their main takeaways, and their views on the wider discussion on expropriation without compensation in the country.

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?

Media releases

• Public/Private partnership delivers 115 titles deeds to impoverished town of Edenville, Ngwathe, Free State
• Provincial Human Settlements Minister Tertius Simmers participates in Khaya Lam Grabouw title deeds presentation
• Historic transfer of 132 title deeds in Stellenbosch thanks to the Municipality, Johann Rupert and the FMF
• Historic land titling event in Alex, Johannesburg

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.

5. All law must be clear, predictable, accessible, not contradictory, and shall not have retrospective effect.
6. 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.
7. All law must apply the principle of equality before the law.
8. All law must be applied fairly, impartially, and without fear, favour or prejudice.
9. The sole legitimate authority for making substantive law rests with the legislature, which authority shall not be delegated to any other entity.
10. No law shall have the aim or the effect of circumventing the final authority of the courts.
11. 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.
12. The law shall afford adequate protection of classical individual rights.
13. All law must comply with the overriding principle of reasonableness, which comprehends rationality, proportionality, and effectiveness.
14. The legislature and organs of state shall observe due process in the rational exercise of their authority.

Articles

• Legislation by regulation undermines economic freedom by Martin van Staden
• Icasa sports regulations pose a threat to constitutionalism by Martin van Staden
• SA mining industry decimated by regulatory uncertainty by Eustace Davie
• Icasa’s pay-TV ‘musts’ make for daft twaddle by Leon Louw

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

Evening event
On 23 October, Dawie Roodt presented Human apes to human robots. We, as humans, embarked on the most amazing journey which probably started a few thousand years ago. Initially there was a slight difference between us and the other great apes, but we made some great discoveries which allowed us to dominate the other apes as well as the rest of nature. Join Dawie on our amazing journey from Homo-Naledi to free lunches to civilisations and the amazing world which we live in today.

 You can watch Dawie’s presentation here.