Tag: Chris Hattingh

2023 is poised to be a year of accelerated change in and for South Africa. As the country heads toward a general election in 2024, a sea-change is on the cards. The African National Congress (ANC) are by all accounts on the point of obtaining below 50% at the voting booth; some estimates have the party even under 45%.

For millennia the dominant thinking throughout human society was, ‘force over voluntary interactions.’ Regardless of the country, the adage of ‘might makes right’ was the guiding rule upon which people interacted with each other.

Read our exclusive cover story titled THE RULE OF LAW & THE WISDOM OF THE AGES by Chris Hattingh, Deputy Head of Campaigns, South African Institute of Race Relations, as well a host of other topical management articles written by professionals, consultants and academics in the February/March 2022 edition of BusinessBrief.

Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) General Secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali’s thought-provoking, in-depth piece advocating the ostensible strengths of the government's localisation plans refers ('Ideologues do the jobless a disservice by turning localisation into a swearword', January 9).

South Africa ranks 84th out of 165 countries and territories included in the Economic Freedom of the World: 2021 Annual Report, that we have released in conjunction with Canada’s Fraser Institute. In 2000, South Africa ranked 58th on the list of countries analysed.

While we acknowledge the positive structural reforms currently underway by government – most notably the lifting of the self-generation threshold to 100MW – command control plans of enforced localisation stand to undo any potential positive upsides of other reforms.

The Department of Social Development’s Green Paper on Comprehensive Social Security and Retirement Reform will, if adopted, result in the most harm for those it is ostensibly intended to benefit. We call on government to urgently reconsider any proposals that increase the state’s power over citizens’ financial affairs and urges all South Africans to resist the proposals contained in the paper.

According to Peter Attard Montalto (head of Capital Markets Research at Intellidex) the violence and looting that took place in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in July 2021 cost the national retail sector R5 billion, 800 non-shopping centre stores were looted, 100 stores were burnt out, and 200 shopping centres were looted, and many destroyed. How can the country recover from such devastation - and when still enduring more than a year of lockdown and a pandemic? The answer must lie in economic and individual freedom.

Read our exclusive cover story titled BUILD BACK BETTER | NOW IS THE TIME FOR POSITIVE RADICAL ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION! by Chris Hattingh, Deputy Director Free Market Foundation, Member of the advisory council Initiative for African Trade and Prosperity and Senior Fellow at African Liberty, as well a host of other topical management articles written by professionals, consultants and academics in the August/September 2021 edition of BusinessBrief.

Reports of alleged corruption plaguing the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS), one of the vehicles being touted to administer the National Health Insurance (NHI) should not come as a surprise. We note with concern these reports, and stresses to both government and citizens the crucial lesson that must be learned from this scandal.