Martin van Staden
http://www.martinvanstaden.com
Martin van Staden is the Head of Policy at the Free Market Foundation and former Deputy Head of Policy Research at the Institute of Race Relations (IRR). Martin also serves as the Editor of the IRR’s History Project and its Race Law Project, and is an advisor to the Free Speech Union SA. He is pursuing a doctorate in law at the University of Pretoria. For more information visit www.martinvanstaden.com.
Articles By This Author
Reflections on a trip to Israel
I was privileged recently to have been able to spend a week with a group of South African journalists and thought leaders in Israel. While
Getting real about land reform and confiscation
Last week a case-study of mine on expropriation without compensation in South Africa appeared in the 2025 International Property Rights Index. This column is a
The tobacco industry has a right to advocate on its own behalf
The tobacco industry has every right to advocate for itself. Yet in South Africa and around the world, it is increasingly being muzzled, while foreign
Treat stateproofing as an asset, not a risk
A recent article in The Conversation highlights a growing trend in South Africa: ordinary people, from the impoverished shacks of Imizamo Yethu to the affluent
The insidiousness of universal digital identification
Few tools have been as seductive as the promise of a universal identification system that the state can at will rely upon to enforce its
Doomsday coalition’s EWC in action: where is the GNU firewall?
When the business group Sakeliga revealed the details surrounding the ongoing Driefontein expropriation without compensation in Ekurhuleni on 20 September 2025, the only real question
Political violence the inevitable consequence of over-politicisation
The assassination of American conservative pundit Charlie Kirk last week hit me harder than I imagined something like this would. In the time since that
The inseparable union of liberalism and the rule of law
The rise of populist authoritarianism on the right around the world unsurprisingly comes alongside an agenda to characterise liberalism’s achievements as either overstated or harmful,
Cape Town, don’t plead for police powers – just get on with it
As mothers continue to bury their children on the Cape Flats – perhaps the most violent place on the continent – the local Cape Town
“Name just a few race laws”
One of the attempts at a “gotcha” against the statement that there are, give or take, 145 operational race laws on the books in South