Articles By This Author

So how does this play out?

Opinions

For more than a decade the Institute of Race Relations has fought a dogged defence of property rights in South Africa.  Through interminable public debates,

A matter of ‘certainty’

Opinions

Certainty, certainty, certainty… an evocative concept that populates our political discourse. It is a commodity, it seems, that we need above all else. If only

What a farm tragedy, and Biblical invocations, tell us about land reform

Opinions

According to the prevailing official narrative, little if anything is more important than ‘the land question’. Not only, the narrative suggests, will this redress grave

An unpalatable trade-off

Opinions

There are all too often no perfect solutions to the problems that confront us, merely trade-offs that provide an imperfect way forward.  We do what

Will business live up to its responsibilities?

Opinions

Some years back, I had a conversation with a senior executive in one of the country’s business organisations. This was just after President Jacob Zuma

Tax and the broken social contract

Opinions

Last year, the SA Revenue Service put out an advert to the country’s taxpayers. Against the background of footage meant to invoke the Covid-19 pandemic,

Thoughts from a grim alternative reality

Opinions

Amerika was one of the more evocative television events of the later 1980s. Originally broadcast over seven nights in 1987, it depicted life in the

Land reform can promote agriculture – but what Ramaphosa’s government proposes cannot

Opinions

There is no trade-off between land reform and agricultural production and productivity. This was the message from President Cyril Ramaphosa in the debate on the

It’s not a question of narrative

Opinions

One of the excellent points made by Brian Pottinger in his 2009 book, The Mbeki Legacy, relates to the palpable frustration felt by South Africa’s

Cuba and SA: A complex web of loyalties and commitments

Opinions

South Africa’s cabinet will be proposing the Contingente Internacional de médicos especializados en situaciones de desastre y graves epidemias ‘Henry Reeve’ – the Cuban ‘medical