Tag: Initiative for African Trade and Prosperity

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.