Martin van Staden
https://www.martinvanstaden.com
Dr Martin van Staden is the Head of the AfriForum Institute for Federalism. He additionally serves as a Special Advisor to 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
FMF’s consistent liberalism meets Reds in retreat
Particularly after last week’s elections, South Africa’s former “liberation movement” is no longer an untouchable holy cow. It played a role in ending Apartheid, but
Renegotiating practical politics in SA through federalisation
This past Monday, 2 November, I took on a new role as the founding Head of the AfriForum Institute for Federalism, while retaining functions in
Federalism and devolution in the 2026 local government elections
South Africa has a formally federal Constitution and an increasingly robust and thriving community federalist scene at grassroots level. With the local government elections taking place next week on 4 November, it might be useful to survey some of the participating parties on how they approach the question of political decentralisation.
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 to this much spilled ink has been a dilemma.
Health department PR spend is sobering in light of anti-tobacco work
In a “blink and you’ll miss it” flash in the pan late in September, it was reported that the health department had spent some R182 million on health “communications” and events, before the news cycle rotated onwards.
The battle of ideas cannot be democratised or domesticated
The demand that South Africans who oppose race law, expropriation without compensation, and the toleration of farm attacks “stay at home” and “win by persuasion”
Something to consider about affirmative action
Affirmative action has been in place for three decades in South Africa, and is part of the furniture. The debate should, however, continue. Last week
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.