2023 FMF R1Million Challenge Now Live

Dear friends and supporters of the FMF

The free market is the only way for South Africa to become a thriving, prosperous and peaceful country.
This conviction underpins all the work of the Free Market Foundation.

A generous sponsor will add 50% to all donations made before 28 February 2023

Not only will your donation be multiplied by 1.5 but it will be tax-deductible up to 10% of your taxable income, which means that if you are in the 40% tax bracket your donation of R10,000 costs you a net R6,000 but becomes a total of R15,000 that will be working on your behalf towards changing South Africa in a free market direction – the only way our country will become thriving, prosperous and peaceful. The 50% bonus applies from the first rand. There is no minimum to qualify. Whatever you donate will be increased by 50%. No donation is too small – bear in mind that many small drops combine to make a flood.

If you donate by 28 February, your donation will qualify for a full tax deduction for the 2023 fiscal year

Donate because the Free Market is the only way!

 

The Free Market Foundation is South Africa's oldest and foremost proponent of free market policies. These policies which are backed by 39 years of rigorous research published in the Economic Freedom of the World reports, show that free markets deliver the best overall economic results for everyone. In free markets individuals can decide for themselves how to use their labour and talents to improve their lives. They do not have a right to the products and resources of others.

Expropriation without compensation (EWC)

When government first mentioned the notion of taking property without compensation, the FMF opposed the proposal as not being in the best interests of South Africans. The FMF organised a conference, held in Johannesburg in November 2018, with speakers from the USA, India, Venezuela, several African countries, and South Africa, to discuss the issue in detail. A Round Table discussion on EWC was also held in Johannesburg in 2021. The FMF published the papers of the conference speakers, who, without exception urged that insecure property rights would have detrimental economic consequences for SA. Where liberty and property are co–existent with the rule of law, any systemic violation of either must, of necessity, involve an element of state coercion and therefore a violation of the rule of law.

The year 2021 closed on a very important note. The determined agenda to expropriate land and other property without compensation (EWC) via a constitutional amendment was effectively defeated. However, in 2022 the National House of Assembly adopted the Expropriation Bill which will now be sent to the National House of Provinces for consideration.

The Free Market Foundation will continue to oppose EWC at every turn. We cannot allow such a disaster to befall South Africa.

Donate to support the FMF's work to counter EWC


The free market is the only way to rapidly reduce SA’s mass unemployment

The most egregious policies adopted in South Africa are those that cause mass unemployment. Onerous termination procedures, minimum conditions of employment, compulsory minimum wages and other regulatory conditions imposed on employers, all serve to consign millions of people to the ranks of the permanently unemployed. According to the Q3 30 September 2022 figures unemployment according to Stats SA totalled 11.2 million people, including the “discouraged workers.” There is no doubt that for South Africa to recover from the current mass unemployment the draconian labour regime simply must change. At the lower wage levels of the jobs market, the unemployed would happily forgo labour “protections” because they recognise them as a hindrance.

The FMF's proposal of the Job Seeker's Exemption Certificate (JSEC) deserves serious consideration. It is a means by which impoverished unemployed people could overcome the barriers to entry into South Africa's labour market, without changing the jealously guarded labour laws.

Donate to support the FMF's work to reduce mass unemployment

Finding solutions to our economic problems

There is no way of coming out of the current slump as rapidly as possible other than to adopt sweeping reforms that allow people to plan their personal and business lives to best advantage. The heavy tax and regulatory burdens on businesses and individuals must be rolled back to allow them to function at maximum efficiency. It is only their increased efficiency, foresight, ingenuity, and creativity that will transform the economy, not edicts emanating from Cape Town and Pretoria.

Donate because the Free Market is the only way!


Health Policy Unit

The FMF Health Policy Unit (HPU), under the guidance and support of experts in the healthcare field, has been the only consistent and often the lone voice speaking out on government’s plans to nationalise healthcare in the country via the introduction of National Health Insurance (NHI), plans that the country cannot afford. The HPU urges government to devote its limited health budget to financing services for the poor, to purchase an increasing percentage of those services from private providers, and to allow and encourage the rapid growth of the private health care sector, enabling it to supply quality health services to an increasing percentage of the population.

Donate to support the FMF's work to counter the looming NHI disaster

Economic Growth

In 2000 the economy was functioning well, and South Africa ranked 47th on the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) rankings and relatively well on most other economic rankings. Since then, South Africa has declined on all the rankings and is now ranked 99th out of the 165 EFW countries measured. If a government wishes to bring about rapid economic growth and rapidly increasing GDP per capita in its country the best way to approach the task is to improve economic freedom in every aspect of the economy. It is the FMF’s task to make this clear to all South Africans.

Donate because the Free Market is the only way to grow the South African economy 

The law and the economy

Since its establishment in 1977 the FMF has given special attention to constitutionality and the rule of law. Its books, policy documents and articles have urged government to abide by the Constitution and the rule of law, which together provide the foundation of the South African legal order. They are the bedrock on which a strong economy, and with it, peace and prosperity were intended to be built, and may yet be built.

Donate to support the FMF's work to promote the Rule of Law

Khaya Lam - Securing property rights for the people

The FMF’s Khaya Lam (my home) project has demonstrated the transformation that occurs when secure ownership of property becomes widespread. Khaya Lam, in partnership with Municipalities and generous donors, has provided the people living in local-authority housing with title deeds to their properties making them homeowners, most of them for the first time in their lives. Khaya Lam has already assisted in uplifting thousands of poor township households and changing their lives for the better but there remains a great many more such houses to convert into freehold ownership in the hands of the families occupying them.

With an average cost of R2,950 per title deed the Khaya Lam project has converted 9,600 municipal properties into full freehold homes for the occupants. The total value of the transferred homes is estimated to be in the region of R1,152 Billion. Turning a R2,950 donation, in partnership with a municipality, into a home with a conservative average value of R120,000.00 has dramatically changed the lives of tens of thousands of township people.

Donate to support the FMF's Khaya Lam Project

Support the promotion of free market ideas

As a think tank the FMF is constantly putting forward ideas about solving some of South Africa’s most serious problems. Property rights, good law, freedom to work, to stop interfering with people’s personal lifestyle choices; to free the private sector from the regulatory burdens that are weighing it down and stunting economic growth; to allow the private health sector to operate without being stifled by bureaucracy, and to allow the market to operate in every other sector of the economy.

Donate because the Free Market is undoubtedly the only way.

Help us to work for the positive change South Africa needs.

Thank you for all your support and encouragement. Together we can create a prosperous future for South Africa.

Sincerely,



Rex van Schalkwyk
Chairman
Free Market Foundation

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Credit Card Donations

To donate to the FMF R1Million challenge using our secure credit card payment facility CLICK HERE

Reference: "FMFC"

EFT Donations

Free Market Foundation

Standard Bank
Sandton Branch 019205
Account Number: 421 066 946
Reference: "FMFC"

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