Thought Leader

Dear Mr Tom Moyane, I write to you as a concerned citizen of South Africa. Sars remains one of the few functioning and efficient institutions in our country. Indeed, without taxpayers’ money, social grants and RDP houses would be impossible and so would the construction and maintenance of essential infrastructure. Delivery of services and the…

“The erosion of institutions” has become something of a buzzword. Add to this the “paralysis in crucial institutions”, and “institutional fabric being unwound”, and you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in Mobutu’s Zaire. They’re usually adjectives attributed to the local commentariat: which interpret any event as a sign of the country’s imminent implosion/race war…

In case you’ve missed it in the midst of media frenzies about puppets in court, murder trials dismissed, or beauty competitions won, South Africa’s democracy is in trouble. Here are 10 reasons why our constitutionally enshrined democratic rights are under threat: 1. Threats of establishing a media appeals tribunal Not so long ago, the ruling…

So there is the on-going saga that is exchange controls. Every year there is also the usual pontificating, at national budget time, on the future of exchange controls. The financial pundits will all agree that exchange controls need to go and that maybe this is finally the year that the minister of finance will pluck…