Friends & warships
Why IBSAMAR matters, and the need for an increased naval budget.
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BEE is NOT in the "national interest"
Makone Maja explains to Nicholas Lorimer why recent defences of BEE as being in the ‘national interest’ are nothing more than a smokescreen for political resource extraction. Read the article here: Minister Ntshavheni, is BEE of national interest or ANC
Selective non-alignment: Pretoria must change its Russia policy
Writing in the Daily Maverick in September 2025, International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola set out the clearest official statement of what non-alignment is meant to be. It is “not anti-West or anti anyone,” but “an expression of sovereignty anchored in
A path to the end of animal testing in drug discovery?
I recently wrote a column about the impact that AI is already having on drug discovery, particularly in the early part of the process where researchers try to find a molecular “key” that fits a biological “lock”. The article described
When did liberals stop caring about minorities?
Ivo Vegter has written three pieces about me, my colleagues at the Free Market Foundation (FMF), and the perfectly innocuous and highly liberal-coded White Cross Project in the United States that we participated in. How one goes about responding succinctly
Book your ticket for next month’s Hoernlé Memorial Lecture on real “transformation”
A more inclusive, sustainable and diversity-based transformation could foster a genuine common South Africanness. This is the theme of the 2026 Hoernlé Memorial Lecture, the IRR’s flagship public lecture, to be delivered by scholar and outspoken critic of BEE William
The consequences of Paris 2026
Paris could become the spark that gives further fuel to clashes with police across Europe and what the right sees as the battle for the West.
A friendly frigate and a lesson in choosing partners
On Monday 19 October I stood on the deck of INS Tarkash in False Bay as the ship’s Chetak helicopter hovered overhead. Brazil’s BrNS Barroso steamed nearby, and South Africa’s submarine SAS Manthatisi was in the same waters - as
UCT and free speech: the cost of punishing ideas
The deepest irony in the efforts by some interests at the University of Cape Town to punish UCT Council members Mark Oppenheimer and David Ansara for opinions they don’t like is that they unwittingly concede their own ideas cannot afford