In his fortnightly column in Business Day, John Kane-Berman, the Chief Executive of the Institute, argues that, "the violence that erupted after the Soweto shootings in 1976 showed there were issues far bigger than imposing Afrikaans as a language of instruction. So also, the Marikana shootings on 16th August have brought a host of issues to the fore."
Despite great outrage over the Marikana massacre, South Africans are not uniting to demand the resignation of the national police commissioner and the minister of police.
Numerous types of chickens are coming home to roost in South Africa. During their long campaign to win power by making the country ungovernable via a no-holds-barred "people’s war", the ruling alliance made up of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), injected into the bloodstream of the body politic a virus of violence that they cannot now eradicate.
’n Vraag waarmee ek dikwels in my werk gekonfronteer word, is hoekom Suid-Afrika sulke ernstige maatskaplike probleme het, waaronder die gewelddadige aard van misdaad en ons hoë MIV-koers.
It is all too easy to criticise governments. However, there is an example where the government is due credit, mainly because it shows how things can be done. This is the successful implementation of a nationwide HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programme that has come to light most recently at the 19th International AIDS Conference held in Washington DC.
The seven or more SACP members of the Cabinet are only the tip of the iceberg of communist influence in the government and the public sector. If their interventions cause even more economic and social damage, they will not apologise but rejoice - and call for even more state power for themselves.
Frans Cronje explains why we hear so little in public from business organisations such as Business Leadership SA (BLSA).
Helen Suzman was right in saying in 1998 that the Employment Equity Act was premature at best — and that the government must first fix the skills shortage among black South Africans. Tragically, that has still to be done. This leaves employers seeking to fulfil their quotas little choice but to take on people who lack experience and competence but have (as the Employment Equity Act states) the "capacity to acquire, within a reasonable time, the ability to do the job".
The Institute's CEO, John Kane-Berman, argues that one cannot buy into Marxist economic policies without accepting its political ones as well.
What SA needs are proper schools, vastly increased investment and effective incentives to business to expand the jobs they offer. Instead, however, the ruling party is once again seeking to truss the private sector up in yet more reams of unworkable red tape.
The ANC of 2007 under Thabo Mbeki was one of denialism. Denial of problems from HIV/Aids, to crime, corruption and xenophobia. Without many people acknowledging the change, the ANC has started to accept the problems it faces as a governing party.
The Institute's Head of Special Research, Dr Anthea Jeffery, argues that Zapiro's main offence is not disrespecting the office of the president but rather that the insight he has offered with his controversial cartoon "cuts far too close to the bone".