By instituting formal disciplinary proceedings against Helen Zille, the federal executive of the Democratic Alliance (DA) has done more to bring "the good name of the party into disrepute" than Ms Zille's tweet about colonialism ever could. Ms Zille is guilty at the most of "thought crime", forerunner of the political correctness which has done so much to stifle debate in this country. Moreover, whatever the leadership of the DA might think, the debate s
Our own writing in the media
No mention of race or sex, no attempt to blame the city's ills on colonialism and apartheid or on Jan van Riebeeck. No trotting out of the National Development Plan (NDP), no calling for the supposed panacea of a new "social compact", no vague promises of "structural reform" to appease credit ratings agencies. No obsession with "inequality", n
Phumlani M UMajozi pays tribute to the outgoing UFS VC and Rector.
'The ‘third force’ narrative's most explosive assumption – an organised, high-level plot – proved untenable'
John Kane-Berman argues that Ebrahim Patel's New Growth Plan is a nonstarter.
11 February 2018 - Much has been made of the apparently paltry landholdings of black South Africans, at 1.2% of farmland and 7% of formally registered urban land. Taken at face value, this suggests that neither government’s land reform initiatives, nor market-based transactions, have had any noticeable impact on black people’s asset base
Under cover of the race debate, two senior communists (Thulas Nxesi and Jeremy Cronin) are pushing through Parliament the Expropriation Bill that will greatly harm all South Africans — especially the jobless poor.
The Ingonyama Trust was established in 1994 in terms of an agreement between the outgoing National Party government and the administration of the KwaZulu homeland. Under this agreement, all customary land then owned by the KwaZulu administration became vested in the Ingonyama Trust, with the Zulu monarch as the sole trustee of this land.
14 March 2018 - The ANC has never wanted to succeed at land reform. Rather, one of its key objectives has long been to ‘eliminate’ private property rights, so as to help shift South Africa from a capitalist to a socialist and then communist economy.
John Kane-Berman says govt has yet to find a model of land redistribution that works.
5 January 2018 - If there was ever any doubt that a reckless mishandling of land policy represented a real threat to South Africa’s future, the ANC’s recent national conference has put that to rest. Its resolution on land expropriation without compensation constitutes a profound danger not only to the agricultural sector, or to the economy as a whole, but to the rights and prospects of South Africa’s citizens.
16 March 2018 - A lack of information about land ownership has been a critical hindrance to an informed debate around land reform. As a rendering of the findings of the land audit, President Ramaphosa’s words are a good deal, more accurate than what some of his associates have put out. But they still obscure as much as they reveal.
What is President Jacob Zuma's government up to with land reform? Not only Mr Zuma, but also his minister of rural development and land reform, Gugile Nkwinti, have on several occasions this year spoken of restitution without compensation. The deputy minister of public service and administration, Ayanda Dlodlo, has done the same.
None of these proposed laws is new. However, the government is now due to assess comments on the ceilings and processing bills received by deadlines that expired last week; draft regulations on valuation procedures are open for public comment until 19 June.
Brazil’s phenomenal economic success at the time was “catnip for labour movements”. Lula’s Workers Party was credited with the “economic miracle” in which 15 million jobs were created and GDP growth topped 7.5% in 2010.
Van Heerden says the youth should take note of what happened in Britain and make sure they put pen to paper and hold political parties more accountable.
South Africans still see a university degree as the first prize and vocational options as second choice, at best. Although this is not a South African phenomenon, it has a distinct resonance in South Africa because of the specific aim of apartheid to educate blacks to be inferior to whites.
In cities, townships, on main traffic routes in and around them, taxi ranks and other places where people gather in numbers, there is a massive, growing market and a free enterprise system which provides jobs and a livelihood for more than two million people.
4 February 2018 - To see expropriation without compensation as a solution is to miss the point entirely. The constitutional requirement to pay compensation for land acquired has not been a hindrance to land reform.