To fix SA mining, start by fixing the law
South Africa’s mining industry is becoming “uninvestable.” The country has among the most valuable mineral endowments in the world, but is nevertheless battling to attract new investment – particularly for the exploration vital to the industry’s future.
God and the machine – AI enters the Vatican
Encyclicals from the papacy have traditionally been events of great gravitas for the 1.4 billion Catholic faithful. Being neither Catholic nor religious, I have had only a passing rather than a personal interest in them.
Bad men doing good: A parable of capitalism’s true genius
Advocates of free-market capitalism often note that this ordering of society does not seek to change imperfect human nature but rather channel it constructively. A short and honest parable about how this might look in the real world, could be illustrative:
The Emfuleni by-election: Is the DA’s big breakthrough close?
Last week, the DA took a leap in winning, for the first time, a township ward that has almost only black voters.
So, the Left wants to review the Constitution
The “conference of the Left” was held in Gauteng at the end of May. The SACP has produced a lengthy document that sets out to capture the essence of the discussions held. The document ends dramatically with a summary of the decisions of the gathering. That summary can be further summarised into the following points.
Artificial intelligence should take our jobs
With every wave of automation, there are those who cry wolf about mass unemployment. Yet it has always been the engine of progress and prosperity.
South Africa cannot subsidise its way to prosperity
Earlier this week trade, industry, and competition minister Parks Tau told Parliament that South Africa “cannot compete in the world of the future using the tools of the past.” While he was correct on that score, he neglected to mention that his department is reaching for those exact same tools.
Not all cultures are equal
Cultural relativism began as an attempt to understand societies more sympathetically. Over time it became something else: a reluctance to defend liberal values at all. A society that refuses to judge oppressive norms eventually loses the confidence required to defend its own freedoms.
Joburg’s fairytale budget: the madness has to stop now
Last Wednesday, the ANC-led coalition of doom in Johannesburg was meant to table the City’s 2026/27 medium-term budget. Instead, it presented a fairytale – one that could only be produced in the ANC’s unique school of mathematics.
Liberalism: in search of an idea – Part 1
This is the first of a three-part series looking at the philosophy behind the concept of liberalism and the history that gave rise to it. The series is based on a section of my recently completed MPhil project. Michael Freeden, a British academic and expert on ideology, describes the origins of liberalism thus: “Liberalism began, broadly speaking, as a movement to release people from the social and political shackles that constrained and frequently exploited them.”