Parliament discovers tobacco harm reduction
In a rare outbreak of evidence-based policy, the Portfolio Committee on Health has repudiated the dogma that “harm is harm”. Credit where credit is due.
Tau is right about the decline, but the remedy misses the cause
Parks Tau, Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition, told a defence industry conference in Pretoria this week that South Africa must confront three decades of decline in its arms industry. Defence force acquisitions from local manufacturers fell to R850m in 2017 from R26.2bn in 1989/90. Over the same period research and development funding dropped to about R500m from R6.1bn. Employment across the sector collapsed from 130,000 people across 3,000 firms in 1990 to 13,000 people across 600 firms today.
AI – The Chinese are coming! The Chinese are coming!
Even people with only a light interest (or even disinterest) in AI know that there is a leaderboard. Sometimes OpenAI is on top. Then Anthropic releases a new model and they grab the lead. Somewhere behind them SpaceXAI and Meta and Google, all huffing and puffing to stay in the race.
Resolve Communications, the Daily Maverick, and the public conversation
The Daily Friend shares below a piece written by the IRR’s Head of Strategic Communications, Hermann Pretorius, originally submitted to the Daily Maverick on 14 July in response to DM writer Rebecca Davis’s article of 12 July, EXCLUSIVE: The DA MP, Tony Leon’s lobbying firm and the SIM card law. As the following indicates, the IRR was informed on 22 July that the DM had “decided not to publish the piece at this time”.
Accelerating – or deterring – off-shore oil and gas production?
The South African state’s crude oil reserves have dropped to some 8 million barrels (enough to meet the country’s fuel needs for just 13 days), the country’s refining capacity has halved and conflict in the Middle East is badly disrupting global oil supplies.
Tribute to Bill Johnson (1943 – 2026)
RW Johnson, “Bill” to his many friends and relations, was educated at Natal University and thereafter, as a Rhodes Scholar, at Oxford University. He was a fellow in politics at Magdalen College, Oxford, for 26 years and remained an emeritus fellow. Bill was an exceptional academic, journalist and author, with the breadth of knowledge and the acumen to probe well below the surface of events – and the courage to keep challenging accepted wisdoms.
More than a flag
The Pride flag at Bishops has sparked a predictable debate about inclusion. The more interesting question is why schools increasingly feel the need to express their values through official symbols at all.
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.
Trying to save BEE with a voluntary tax won’t stop the damage
There is now a growing and broad criticism that black economic empowerment (BEE), a central tenet of ANC policy, has failed to create a self-sustaining black entrepreneurial class. Instead, it has enriched a few, meant higher prices paid by the government to empowerment suppliers, fostered corruption, and become a hurdle to investment in the country.
Missing outrage over Hamas’ obstruction of humanitarian aid
There has been near-total silence from many of Israel’s critics following the recent United Nations (UN) finding that Hamas obstructed the delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.