Chris Hattingh
Chris Hattingh is Executive Director at the Centre for Risk Analysis.
Articles By This Author
The state cannot find its own guns
The Civilian Secretariat for Police Service has committed to table the Firearms Control Amendment Bill in Parliament by the end of March 2027. According to the draft that circulated in November 2025, the Bill would tighten limits on civilian ownership, widen the minister’s discretion over who may own a firearm, and remove self-defence as a reason to hold a licence.
Treasury tells the SANDF to make do
On 16 October, Parliament’s defence committee asked for an urgent meeting between the finance minister, Enoch Godongwana, and the defence minister, Angie Motshekga. The committee, chaired by Molefi Legoete, wanted agreed costings and dates for stopping the department’s salary overspending from 2027/28. It also complained that soldiers on operations lack basic kit, such as boots, uniforms, bullet-proof vests, weapons and working vehicles. Five days later, Mr. Godongwana tabled the mid-term budget policy statement. It was his, and Treasury’s, answer to the committee.
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 well as SAS Amatola. The Indian crew were impressive: professional, welcoming, and friendly. They were keen to talk about all kinds of things, from their ship to naval strategy and tactics, to cricket. The weather was perfect for the exercise, and I came away thinking about a different naval exercise held in the same waters nine months earlier.
South Africa has to earn the title of middle power
On 14 October India’s foreign minister, S Jaishankar, said that India is uncomfortable with the label “middle power”. Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi, he pointed to the world’s largest population, an economy of about $4 trillion, and decades of growth ahead. He indicated he prefers “powers in the middle”. Ten days earlier, at the Munich Leaders Meeting in the same city, he had said it’s easier to say what a middle power is not, rather than what it is.
You can’t defend liberalism with tribalism
There is an increasingly prevalent view among some within the broad South African liberal community that liberalism needs more elements of identity politics, group focus,
SA invests 14 cents of every rand it earns – meaningful growth needs twice that
South Africa spent 13.9% of its national income on new buildings, machinery and equipment (gross fixed capital formation as a percentage of GDP) in 2025.
Poland vs SA: making a choice, and holding to it
Poland and democratic South Africa started in almost the same place. In 1993, Poland’s gross domestic product per person was $4,700. South Africa’s was $4,400.
Is South Africa serious about its sovereignty?
Speaking at Waterkloof Air Force Base, defence and military veterans minister Angie Motshekga opened the 13th Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) exhibition with a message worth taking seriously. She told delegates that July’s Defence Industry Lekgotla had produced a roadmap built on “localisation and sovereign capability, ensuring South Africa designs, manufactures, and sustains its own defence technologies.” She pointed to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent visit to Denel as proof that government backs the sector, and she framed the exhibition’s drones, aerospace platforms and cyber systems as engines of industrialisation.
AGOA survival doesn’t cure South Africa’s growth challenge
Last week United States (US) President Donald Trump signed into law an extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), keeping duty-free access to the US market open for more than 30 African countries until the end of 2028. For over a year, Republican Senator John Kennedy and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer had both floated cutting South Africa out of the programme entirely, citing its ties to China, Russia and Iran. Neither proposal made it into the law Mr Trump signed.
South Africa’s hidden tax: why crime is now a line item
Every business operating in South Africa already pays a tax that never appears on a South African Revenue Service assessment.