Tag: Free Market Foundation

Taxes are never pleasant, but they can do a lot of good if used in the right way, such as providing access to education and healthcare for the poor through vouchers. Taxes can also do a lot of harm by dissuading savings and investments, which ultimately leads to less jobs and a reduced ability for people to take care of their own needs. This is especially the case when it comes to dividend withholding tax and personal income tax.

“While spending on government consumption has been held down over the last ten years, demand for public services has increased substantially. Meanwhile, as public employment in health, education and criminal justice has stagnated, employment by private companies providing the same services has surged.

Eskom, as a state-owned monopoly, with centrally controlled oversight and direction, is not the best structure for the supply of electricity in South Africa, a critical energy source without which no nation can grow and prosper. Better structures are those that have evolved under competitive circumstances in the European Union, United States, and small, forward-looking countries such as New Zealand.

In January 2023, I will be joining one of South Africa’s leading think tanks, the Free Market Foundation (FMF), as its new Chief Executive. It will be an honour to serve an organisation that has promoted a market economy, the rule of law, and individual rights for nearly half a century. My appointment has led me to reflect on what think tanks are for, and their rapidly changing role in the policy - and political - landscape in South Africa.

Read our exclusive cover story titled WHO WILL WATCH THE WATCHMEN? - THE RELEVANCE & ROLE OF THINK TANKS by David Ansara, Chief Executive (Designate), Free Market Foundation, as well a host of other topical management articles written by professionals, consultants and academics in the December/January 2022/23 edition.

No new business can prosper without access to start-up capital, and the regulatory environment must not stand in the way of this process. In other words, South Africa’s economic future is not served by do-gooder statutory restrictions on financing. As such, significant amendments should be made to the National Credit Act, as well as the Banks Act, to ease pressure on small businesses that seek to finance their growth. 

If South Africa was a horse, we would probably shoot it. But it is instead a one-horse country, and we have to find a way to save it. Imminent national collapse looms. We know we cannot continue with the African National Congress (ANC). They actually deserve to be shot.

It is particularly costly for small businesses in South Africa to access justice. Without access to justice, these businesses cannot resolve important disputes or see their rights or interests vindicated in a legally recognised fashion. There are certain things Parliament can do to make the courts accessible to small enterprises.

In June 2022, the Pretoria High Court declared the certificate-of-need (CON) provisions in the 2003 National Health Act to be invalid. Although this matter has received little attention in the press, the implications are far reaching for government’s proposed health reforms.

Education has been repeatedly identified as one of the most important ingredients to ending the majority of South Africans’ cycles of poverty. Yet it is the government’s stranglehold over education – which it maintains precisely in the name of “social justice” – that ensures general education retains a poor quality and only contributes to the cycle. South Africa should be a world leader in the liberalisation of education.