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
Stop treating “representivity” as an unassailable gospel
News24 deputy politics editor Bongekile Macupe last week undertook a racial bean-counting exercise in the finest tradition of South Africa’s old census bureaucracy by naming all the new leadership figures and
MK’s pro-Tobacco Bill turn: The lady doth protest too much
As a non-smoker, I have written about South Africa’s Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill more times than I care to count– and will continue to write about it.
Why does South Africa need an “AI policy”?
With the recent AI policy scandal in the Department of Communications, South Africa should ask whether it needs a restrictive artificial intelligence policy framework in the first place. Emulating Europe’s regulatory straitjacket would stifle our low-growth economy and impose unaffordable compliance burdens on start-ups. America’s light-touch approach proves the better path.
Against “historical injustice” exceptionalism in South Africa
South Africa’s public discourse often treats Apartheid as a uniquely evil system that was unmatched in its destructiveness. This exceptionalism claims that our history justifies policies – like never-ending race-based laws – that other states recovering from injustice have largely rejected. In reality, we must learn from what has worked elsewhere after tyranny and discrimination: secure property rights, limited government, and market-driven growth that lifted millions out of poverty.
Understanding value subjectivity would lower the temperature of discourse
Grasping basic value subjectivity would dramatically cool South Africa’s toxic debates on unemployment, immigration, and “exploitation”.
Traoré is right about democracy (but nothing else)
Ibrahim Traoré, the dictator of Burkina Faso, recently declared on state television that “people need to forget about the issue of democracy”, adding: “We have to tell the truth: democracy isn’t for us.” He said that “democracy kills” and invoked Libya as a cautionary tale of bloodshed and instability whenever outsiders attempt to impose the system. “Democracy is slavery”, he concluded.
Defending Roman-Dutch law against Ghana’s bizarre UN slavery resolution
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly’s newest resolution condemning the trans-Atlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity” and demanding reparations is highly presumptuous and opportunistic. It misconstrues the justice of reparations and invents fictional legal history that condemns Europe while sanitising African participation.
The West’s responsibility in Iran
Whatever Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu decide to do next in their rightful war against the Islamic regime, the West has a responsibility to the people of Iran that cannot easily be sidestepped with clever “realist” slogans.
The right to be free is to be presumed, and deviations justified
Saturday, 21 March, is Human Rights Day in South Africa. Marking the anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, this day is meant to be a celebration of the supposed victory of human rights over authoritarian imposition. Occasions like these are good opportunities to ponder the nature and discourse around rights.
Consumer Rights Day 2026: The state is not your mommy
This coming Sunday, 15 March, is Consumer Rights Day. Most people today view consumer rights almost exclusively through the prism of “accurate information” and “the ability to opt-out