Martin van Staden
https://www.martinvanstaden.com
Dr Martin van Staden is the Head of Policy at the Free Market Foundation and Editor of the Race Law Project at the South African Institute of Race Relations. He earned a Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) from the University of Pretoria and is widely published and featured on popular and academic platforms. Van Staden additionally serves as a director of both the Hayek Council for a Free World and the Free Speech Union SA, and as a fellow at both the Consumer Choice Center and Initiative for African Trade and Prosperity. Visit www.martinvanstaden.com for more.
Articles By This Author
Race law in South Africa: a brief to America
The following is based on an address I am to deliver tomorrow at the National Press Club in Washington DC, as part of the Lex
Marco Rubio takes on the South African elite on Constitution Day
Hello from the District of Columbia swamp! This column goes live on 17 September, Constitution Day in the United States, and I had the privilege of writing it during a long stay in the American capital. Two days earlier, 15 September, was National Voter Registration Day.
The “myth of white genocide” disinfo campaign reaches Lex Libertas
For more than a year I have been saying this on X (Twitter), and I will say it again here: “white genocide” as a narrative device is a product of the left and the press.
The unacceptable risks of the safetyist religion
Last Saturday, two Airlink Embraers in Springbok and All Black colours flew over Cape Town’s DHL Stadium just before South Africa played New Zealand. The crowd roared, but pockets of the internet – as it now does with anything that looks like a “near-miss” – turned to hysteria.
We need new permission structures to arrest municipal collapse
The following is based on an address I delivered last evening in a discussion,“Ballot or Build-It: How to Save Our Cities”, with DA mayoral candidate for Tshwane Cilliers Brink at the Free Market Foundation (FMF). The discussion was moderated by FMF CEO David Ansara.
Why liberals should support AfriForum and the Solidarity Movement
For reasons that continue to mystify, many supposed classical liberals cannot help but lay into AfriForum and the Solidarity Movement with criticism they do not give to other non-liberals.
If you still oppose privatisation, you don’t really understand South Africa
The Democratic Alliance (DA)’s recent local government manifesto has predictably provoked a backlash.
AfriForum is clearly right about political interference in school sports
I sometimes have to pinch myself and remember that in 2026 there are still South Africans who have somehow missed that state race regulation remains a living part of our public life. The persistence of this denialism speaks to the difficulty of meaningful reform, as we are not even able to perceive the same objective reality.
Soft coups, self-coups, and pretend-democracy
Several months ago, something scandalous happened that in substance, if not form, broke a part of South Africa’s constitutional integrity, and yet it became a muted and ordinary part of the news cycle. What does our non-reaction to this event say about our democracy?
To level up the DA’s game, the “Blue Brigade” must be permanent
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is not like the “big parties” of South African history.