Only days left to halt the move towards land nationalisation
11 August 2021 - The nationalisation of land is a distinct possibility that is coming ever closer to reality – the Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Bill now making its way through Parliament will pave the way for this.
10 August 2021 - Following the otherwise unexpected and surprising announcement of Israel’s being granted observer status in the African Union (AU), it was entirely unsurprising that the South African government would describe the AU’s decision as ‘appalling’.
9 August 2021 - Justice & correctional services minister Ronald Lamola has indicated that the ANC will not support the EFF’s proposals to amend the constitution to take all land into state custodianship. This is “nationalisation”, will damage the economy, and is not in keeping with SA’s ambitions, he said. In a country desperate for good news, this was well received.
8 August 2021 - Last week’s column on “How to fix the country” stated up front that Cyril Ramaphosa would probably do very little to halt South Africa’s downward slide.
IRR to go to court to oppose election postponement
5 August 2021 - The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has briefed a legal team to go to the Constitutional Court as a friend of the court to oppose the appeal by the Electoral Commission (IEC) to exceed the constitutional deadline for the national municipal elections.
5 August 2021 - After years of exceptional gains, the country’s tech stocks took a hammering with the crackdown last week. They have somewhat recovered, but the targeting of the larger companies in the tech sector must raise questions about whether the Chinese Communist Party has decided to sacrifice growth and technology innovation for social control.
IRR warns of risk of land nationalisation
5 August 2021 - The Institute of Race Relations warns that while the drive for Expropriation without Compensation remains very much alive, a potent new threat is the addition of custodianship of “certain” land and improvements, a notion tantamount to land nationalisation, according to the justice minister. This poses a grave danger to the country’s future prospects.
Dlamini-Zuma and IEC sabotage Constitutional Court – IRR
4 August 2021 - Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s proclamation yesterday of 27 October as the date for the next municipal elections – despite no section of the Constitution or other legislation requiring her to do so – effectively shut the door to in-person voter registration before it opened.
Over 21 000 join IRR in opposing firearms law amendment
3 August 2021 - More than 21 000 South Africans have rejected the government’s proposed ban on owning guns for self-defence through the campaign mounted by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) against the draft Firearms Control Amendment Bill.
2 August 2021 - One of the most likely outcomes of last month’s devastating violence is that Cyril Ramaphosa does very little to halt the country’s downward slide. But what should be done?
1 August 2021 - I had the temerity once to chide an editor in a note for ditching an editorial I had written and offering in its stead what I felt was “a nicely enough crafted piece of sentimentality at a time in our history when this sort of romanticism is a dangerous affliction”.
30 July 2021 - There is a widespread belief that a basic income grant of some variety can rapidly and significantly reduce poverty in South Africa. That is true, but it isn’t quite as simple as all that.
