[{"id":48373,"date":"2024-12-13T04:10:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T02:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/?p=48373"},"modified":"2024-12-13T13:11:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T11:11:04","slug":"government-took-the-foreign-owned-spaza-shop-bait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/government-took-the-foreign-owned-spaza-shop-bait\/","title":{"rendered":"Government took the foreign-owned spaza shop bait"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Food at spaza shops is likely being poisoned. President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s response is exactly what would-be poisoners would have wanted.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today is the deadline for all spaza shops who wish to continue operating to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polity.org.za\/article\/govt-urges-spaza-shop-owners-to-register-businesses-before-deadline-2024-12-12\">register with their respective municipalities<\/a>. This requirement is over and above the usual company registration and business permits that are required in the ordinary course of formal operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spaza shops have been part of the informal business landscape for decades. It is where millions of people buy affordable groceries and household items. Thousands of entrepreneurs operate these shops, forming the backbone of the township economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In September 2024, out of the blue, hundreds of people \u2013 primarily children \u2013 began to get sick, and a couple of dozen died, after consuming food bought from spaza shops and street vendors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All of the reported incidents that I have seen involve foreign-owned spaza shops. And all of them involved either <a href=\"https:\/\/pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/compound\/terbufos\">terbufos<\/a>, an organophosphate insecticide used in agriculture, or a mystery contaminant. These contaminants were discovered not only on the outside of food packaging, but inside packets of chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What changed? Did spaza shop owners all over the country suddenly decide to get reckless with food safety? Did they plant the poison inside the chips packets? Did they suddenly decide, all at the same time, that killing customers makes business sense?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or is there another explanation for the sudden increase in outbreaks of food-related poisonings involving foreign-owned spaza shops?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Official story<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Ramaphosa, in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fZgMZMHi5yQ\">addressing the issue last month<\/a>, said that problems were not limited to foreign-owned spaza shops, but were widespread. He spoke of food-borne illnesses, although it wasn\u2019t about biological pathogens such as listeria, botulism or salmonella, but about food poisoned with agricultural chemicals. He said that investigations did not suggest a deliberate campaign to poison children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem, he said, is that shop owners store prohibited insecticides that are used to control rodents in townships right next to foodstuffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why they all started doing that in September, he left as a homework exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Johannesburg officials and police raided spaza shops eleven days later, they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trtafrika.com\/africa\/food-poisoning-south-africa-spaza-shops-raided-shut-down-18236663\">targeted only foreign-owned shops<\/a>, and discovered \u201cexpired food items and non-labelled goods\u201d, but no poisoned packets of chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of issuing fines, which one might expect in such cases, they shut every single one of the raided spaza shops down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Poisoning theory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Cloete van Vuuren, an infectious disease specialist from the University of the Free State, doesn\u2019t buy the explanation that it\u2019s merely about poor food safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He noted that the deaths occurred very quickly, which suggests that the victims ingested substantial doses of pesticide, which is unlikely to happen after accidental contamination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat seems to be happening here is food that is contaminated with poison, with an organophosphate,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/sundayworld.co.za\/news\/spaza-food-is-being-deliberately-contaminated-ufs-specialist\/\">he told <em>Sunday World<\/em><\/a>. \u201cContamination is accidental if it happens in small amounts, and you would have a case here and there. In this instance, we have a huge number of children simultaneously being poisoned in certain places over a wide area and they are exposed to very high doses of organophosphate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added: \u201cSpaza shop owners won\u2019t poison their customers. The concern here is that there are outside forces involved. People argue that most spaza shop owners are foreigners and people do not want foreigners to trade. They poison their stock, children get poisoned and their shops close. That might be an underlying explanation. It is unlikely that the doses that the children are exposed to, and the number of deaths is purely accidental. This is not a medical food-borne outbreak. Somebody is deliberately contaminating food that is sold at spaza shops to discredit spaza shops to get them to close. Police need to investigate this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pull the other one<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is Van Vuuren\u2019s story more farfetched than the president\u2019s claim that these incidents were just accidental and weren\u2019t targeted at foreign-owned spaza shops?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People have been selling and using dodgy pesticides forever. All you need to do is ask around, and you\u2019ll soon get your hands on a bunch of nasty poisons like terbufos or aldicarb (colloquially known as \u201cTwo Step\u201d, for the number of steps a poisoned animal supposedly takes after consuming it). Although it is illegal to sell these poisons to consumers, and they are not registered for domestic use, they are routinely used for the control of pest animals. Burglars also use them to poison dogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet despite widespread availability for decades, we are to believe that spaza shops only started mishandling these substances a few months ago?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pull the other one. I don\u2019t believe it. The targeted poisoning theory is almost certainly correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bureaucratic mess<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The government\u2019s reponse, absurdly, involves requiring all spaza shops to register with their municipalities in less than a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the deadline is today, the registration campaign is an entirely predictable (and predicted) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sowetanlive.co.za\/news\/2024-12-06-spaza-owners-say-deadline-too-tight\/\">bureaucratic mess<\/a>. Last week, it was reported that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ewn.co.za\/2024\/12\/07\/over-51-000-spaza-shops-registered-in-sa-so-far\">51,000 spaza shops had been registered<\/a> so far, but there are hundreds of thousands of spaza shops, tuck shops and general dealers in the country. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bt\/business-and-economy\/2024-12-08-tiger-brands-eyes-growth-through-spaza-shops\/\">Tiger Brands alone<\/a> deals with 91,000, and plans to add 150,000 more to its network.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Department of Small Business Development will helpfully deploy a national online registration platform by January 2025, a month after the registration deadline. Nobody appears to have noticed the problem with this arrangement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An organisation representing foreign shop owners has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-za\/news\/other\/extend-deadline-by-six-months-foreign-spaza-shop-owners-plead-with-ramaphosa-for-more-time\/ar-AA1vwNJ5\">begged the government<\/a> for a six-month extension of the deadline, which seems entirely reasonable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Illegal immigrants<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While legal immigrants in possession of a business visa, an asylum seeker certificate or a refugee certificate would be permitted to register their shops and maintain a business licence, that does not apply to foreigners on work, student or tourist visas, or to business owners who employ illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, it would be fairly trivial for an illegal immigrant to set up a fronting arrangement with a South African citizen to bypass all this bureaucratic nonsense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramaphosa has directed a wide range of inspectors, including police officers, military health services members, environmental health inspectors, members of the National Consumer Commission, and labour inspectors to visit every one of the hundreds of thousands of shops to check that rules and standards are being met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only likely result of this inspection blitz is a temporary boost in employment numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramaphosa might say it has nothing to do with foreigners, but every government action so far \u2013 and some of the statements of other members of cabinet, <a href=\"https:\/\/explain.co.za\/2024\/11\/13\/spaza-shop-food-poisonings-tragic-deaths-new-regulations-and-xenophobic-backlash\/\">like Gayton McKenzie<\/a> \u2013 made it clear that the main target is shops owned by foreigners. Deputy President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2024-12-06-listen--dont-register-shops-for-illegal-foreigners-cautions-mashatile-as-deadline-looms\/\">Paul Mashatile has said<\/a> that government wants South Africans to own most shops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is also not the first time that the government has acted to <a href=\"https:\/\/groundup.org.za\/article\/police-shut-down-immigrant-owned-shops\/\">arbitrarily close shops<\/a> operated by foreigners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why? If South Africans were better at running these shops than foreigners, they would already be running them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anti-immigrant groups like Operation Dudula and Put South Africans First have also been vocal on the matter, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/photos-show-lesotho-minimarket-owner-145638406.html\">have been implicated<\/a> in spreading fake news about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Rising prices<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While foreign nationals who own township shops have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-za\/news\/other\/foreign-nationals-owning-shops-weigh-in-on-the-food-poisoning-deaths\/ar-AA1vcbtJ\">spoken out on the apparent poisoning campaign<\/a>, over 1,000 shops have already been closed nationwide, at last count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All the closures will reduce competition in the market. All the red tape will raise costs. I can\u2019t imagine this ending without violence and vigilante action against more foreign-owned shops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The inevitable outcome will be less choice and higher prices for the consumer segment that can least afford food inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the targeted-poisoning theory is true, and I believe it is, then the true villains in this story will get away with their deadly crimes. Not only does the government appear to be too spineless to tackle them, preferring to pander to the rising tide of xenophobia, but by acting against the victims, they have given the real criminals exactly what they wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are not led.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>[Image: Legal immigrant Hadidja Mgoqi stands in front of her Kraaifontein shop, which was arbitrarily closed by the SA Police Service in 2018, without a court order, ostensibly because unnamed \u201ccommunity leaders\u201d objected that it was too close to a rival shop. Photograph: Vincent Lali, GroundUp, used under CC BY-ND 4.0 licence]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If you like what you have just read, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/fund-us\/\">support<\/a><em> the Daily Friend<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Food at spaza shops is likely being poisoned. President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s response is exactly what would-be poisoners would have wanted. Today is the deadline for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":48374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[96],"class_list":["post-48373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Government took the foreign-owned spaza shop bait - Daily Friend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/government-took-the-foreign-owned-spaza-shop-bait\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government took the foreign-owned spaza shop bait - Daily Friend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Food at spaza shops is likely being poisoned. 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Western civilisation \u201cback\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>With so much emphasis on the profound insights of local transgender activist Max du Preez (\u201cbigot\u201d) toward the end of last week, you may have missed something that happened in Paris on Saturday night: Notre Dame reopened.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This wouldn\u2019t have been to du Preez\u2019s taste \u2013 too many white men you see, and not enough London English, blue-haired, power hirsute, pro-Palestine ethical bitches bossing the proceedings, or even ushering folk to their chairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it did appeal to many tastes, and to these and their extensions the return of this magnificent cathedral, restored using traditional, rare stonemasonry and carpentry at a cost of around $900m suggested that, finally, Western civilisation was back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You hear that a lot lately. \u201cBack\u201d presupposes that Western civilisation was on holiday, or convalescing from some dreadful infirmity, but unfortunately, it is gone, extirpated, murdered by the people who were charged with its safeguarding \u2013 some of whom were Emmanuel Macron\u2019s guests for the event. With the exception of the US President-elect, the Saturday gathering included notorious EU climate scammers, lockdown trots, and the forever war faithful: to the best of my knowledge, none of those activities are included on Notre Dame\u2019s famed Rose Windows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These foolish claims only had a few days to delude before two immediately isolated, but upon closer inspection inexorably linked, events evidenced that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Murder<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first involved the murder of a US healthcare executive. Brian Thompson was attending a conference in New York when an assassin casually walked up behind him and started firing. Thompson died in hospital and America\u2019s most urgent manhunt in recent memory was launched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But people following the case\u2019s announcements started noticing something else: in unfolding corners of the internet, there appeared to be unbridled joy at the executive\u2019s murder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Soon that joy had a face \u2013 that belonging to one of America\u2019s worst writers, Taylor Lorenz, whose commitment to quasi Joker-ism as an acceptable form of government was well documented before this occasion. She was thrilled at the relatively young man\u2019s death and was determined to substantiate it by claiming that \u201chis industry killed hundreds and thousands of Americans every year by affording them access to healthcare\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fears that the killer would be this generation\u2019s DB Cooper were struck down on Monday when suspect Luigi Mangione \u2013 a young American of Italian lineage \u2013 was arrested in Pennsylvania on Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second incident involved a young woman from the United Kingdom called Lily Phillips. After some apparent consideration, Ms. Phillips, ordinarily a webcam performer, decided to attempt the world record of having sex with 100 men in one day. When she had done what she did, she became \u2013 for some inexplicable reason \u2013 sad, and complained that all she\u2019d had to eat during the attempt was a Yam Yam and a sandwich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This deprivation troubled her more than the possibility she might have caught the clap or worse (during an interview after the performance, she asked: \u201cIs that how you get Aids?\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Impossibly daft<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s easy to be enthused or disgusted by Lorenz\u2019s commentary. She\u2019s impossibly daft, and very much aligned \u2013 most of the time unwittingly \u2013 to destructive societal changes which have denied young male Americans like Mangione much more than just necessary healthcare authorisation codes. The West has deliberately weakened these people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their own cultures have betrayed them, thrown them to the wolves by projecting them as potential college frat rapists, smeared them as boasting racial privilege and therefore they must live in perpetual surrender and atonement. Simultaneously, it has transferred heightened recognition onto people like Ms. Philips, who is feted for her expression of sexual congress. Such imbalance is proof enough that Western civilisation no longer exists, and its impostor is some kind of a socially engineered grievance algorithm with a Zendesk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Young men in Mangione\u2019s profile can\u2019t find jobs in the US or in the UK. They can\u2019t get on the property ladder. They are the last in line for subsidy, but the first in the event there\u2019s a restructuring, or mass culling of personnel. At university their heads are filled with expensive rubbish \u2013 like how good Obamacare is \u2013 and they spend much of their adulthood trying to pay off student loans while learning to accommodate the 75% spike in health costs the supposedly brilliant Obamacare welcomed in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unless they agree to believe in the worst they\u2019re told about themselves, their prospects are limited to them excelling at things like addition. So, if one were to caution the correct response, it would probably be that if cheering death is awful, then feigning surprise is wildly dumb. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Notre Dame<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The re-opening of Notre Dame occurred in the same city that only months ago featured a wretched, mechanical pale horse galloping on its river, and a gluttonous if transgender-visible interpretation of the Last Supper \u2013 why the organisers didn\u2019t just go full Mandingo and get Ms. Lily Phillips from the United Kingdom to perform an act featuring the South Sudan weightlifting team on the grounds of Versailles, I cannot tell you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps they thought it would be too vanilla, perhaps they\u2019d like a few more years for their countrymen to digest what happened in 2020, when the teacher Samuel Paty was decapitated by an extremist, and what it really meant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, all this supposed paragon of Western civilisation could say was \u201cne regarde pas en arri\u00e8re avec col\u00e8re\u201d, or \u201cdon\u2019t look back in anger\u201d \u2212 a response they aped from their cuckolded fellow travellers, the UK. Whatever was is no longer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>[Image: <\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/edmondlafoto-7913128\/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=6661150\">edmondlafoto<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=6661150\">Pixabay<\/a><\/em><em>]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If you like what you have just read, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/fund-us\/\">support<\/a><em> the Daily Friend<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With so much emphasis on the profound insights of local transgender activist Max du Preez (\u201cbigot\u201d) toward the end of last week, you may have<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":48372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[305],"class_list":["post-48371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is Western civilisation \u201cback\u201d? 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In South Africa, he wrote a weekly column for Business Day, then later Biznews.com. Today he manages a fund based in London, is a trustee of an educational charity, and lives between the UK and California.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/author\/simon-lincoln-reader\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is Western civilisation \u201cback\u201d? - Daily Friend","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/is-western-civilisation-back\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is Western civilisation \u201cback\u201d? - Daily Friend","og_description":"With so much emphasis on the profound insights of local transgender activist Max du Preez (\u201cbigot\u201d) toward the end of last week, you may have","og_url":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/is-western-civilisation-back\/","og_site_name":"Daily Friend","article_publisher":"http:\/\/irrsouthafrica","article_published_time":"2024-12-13T02:05:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-12-12T20:49:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":871,"height":579,"url":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/paris-6661150_1920.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Simon Lincoln Reader","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@DailyFriendSA","twitter_site":"@DailyFriendSA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Simon Lincoln Reader","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/is-western-civilisation-back\/","url":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/is-western-civilisation-back\/","name":"Is Western civilisation \u201cback\u201d? - Daily Friend","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/is-western-civilisation-back\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/is-western-civilisation-back\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/paris-6661150_1920.jpg","datePublished":"2024-12-13T02:05:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-12T20:49:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/#\/schema\/person\/2dbb0d6a50f8748afb067904f4065c24"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/is-western-civilisation-back\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/is-western-civilisation-back\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/is-western-civilisation-back\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/paris-6661150_1920.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/paris-6661150_1920.jpg","width":871,"height":579},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/is-western-civilisation-back\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is Western civilisation \u201cback\u201d?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/","name":"Daily Friend","description":"The Fastest Growing Liberal News Site in South Africa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/#\/schema\/person\/2dbb0d6a50f8748afb067904f4065c24","name":"Simon Lincoln Reader","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/4f7026e8557256e42d6861790cc77102","url":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SLR-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SLR-150x150.jpg","caption":"Simon Lincoln Reader"},"description":"Simon Reader grew up in Cape Town before moving to Johannesburg in 2001, where he was an energy entrepreneur until 2014. 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Today he manages a fund based in London, is a trustee of an educational charity, and lives between the UK and California.","url":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/author\/simon-lincoln-reader\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48371"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=48371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":48369,"date":"2024-12-13T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/?p=48369"},"modified":"2024-12-12T22:54:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T20:54:56","slug":"cape-town-signs-commuter-rail-deal-with-prasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/cape-town-signs-commuter-rail-deal-with-prasa\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town signs commuter rail deal with PRASA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>After court action, threats of an intergovernmental dispute and more than a year of negotiations, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (PRASA) has finally signed a a service level plan (SLP) with the City of Cape Town, which could lay the foundation for the city taking over the management of passenger rail across the metropole.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of the SLP, PRASA must regularly report to the city, with the city exercising oversight over commitments to revitalise stations, introduce more train sets, recommission services, and increase the number of daily passengers and train trips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The city also commits to providing the municipal services needed to support and enhance passenger rail, encouraging transit-orientated development along rail corridors and expediting permits through the city\u2019s services and development planning departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GroundUp reports that, while the SLP was being negotiated, the city conducted its own feasibility study for managing the passenger rail network. The recommendations based on this study were passed by the council on the same day, 5 December, that the SLP was signed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said: \u201cThis is a big step towards improving the quality and reliability of the service through a legally binding agreement, and I am very pleased that we managed to get this finalised this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added: \u201cTaking charge of Metrorail is especially important for lower-income households, who would save an estimated R932m a year if trains were working as they should.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to GroundUp, rail activist organisation UniteBehind said that while the SLP \u201cmarks progress\u201d, it fell short of what was needed for PRASA to fully meet its constitutional and statutory obligations to commuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDespite PRASA having had over a year to finalise it, the plan lacks enforceable commitments, timelines or measures that would enable it to function as a road map for improving commuter rail services,\u201d said UniteBehind executive director Zukie Vuka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>[Image: PRASA, <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=137760669\">https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=137760669<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After court action, threats of an intergovernmental dispute and more than a year of negotiations, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (PRASA) has finally signed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":48370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"coauthors":[94],"class_list":["post-48369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cape Town signs commuter rail deal with PRASA - Daily Friend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/cape-town-signs-commuter-rail-deal-with-prasa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cape Town signs commuter rail deal with PRASA - Daily Friend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After court action, threats of an intergovernmental dispute and more than a year of negotiations, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (PRASA) has finally signed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/cape-town-signs-commuter-rail-deal-with-prasa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daily Friend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/irrsouthafrica\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-12-13T02:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-12T20:54:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/XTrapolis_Mega_in_Cape_Town.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1313\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"849\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@DailyFriendSA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@DailyFriendSA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/cape-town-signs-commuter-rail-deal-with-prasa\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/13\/cape-town-signs-commuter-rail-deal-with-prasa\/\",\"name\":\"Cape Town signs commuter rail deal with PRASA - 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Offensive or repugnant expression must be unambiguously tolerated. But \u201cfree speech absolutism\u201d is a peculiar, and new, phenomenon that neither the common law nor the contextually understood principles of liberalism endorse.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michael Morris and I sparred intellectually last year around the question of the limits around free expression. I <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2023\/08\/10\/flags-and-threats-a-liberal-rumination-on-the-limits-of-free-expression\/\">would<\/a> recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2023\/08\/16\/mistaking-the-malema-risk-a-reply-to-martin-van-staden\/\">reading<\/a> that <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2023\/09\/07\/julius-malemas-threats-of-force-and-the-liberal-orders-rules-of-the-game\/\">series<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2023\/10\/02\/to-see-liberty-thrive\/\">articles<\/a>, some of the ideas of which appear here again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hitler-as-victim<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I recently attended a three-day gathering of classical liberals and libertarians in Midrand. Two of the first lectures at this conference concerned some of the \u201cbasics\u201d of liberty. The first addressed the question of harm and consent, and the second the question of free speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second speaker \u2013 whom I shall not name because I am forced to repeat their arguments in summary form and do not wish to misrepresent them \u2013 ably defended their own preference for free speech absolutism. What they had to say comes down, in my view, to the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Individuals have agency. They might receive inputs, like speech or marketing by others, but they must and do ultimately decide for themselves whether to turn those inputs into action. Those who speak or market to these individuals, no matter how repugnant they might be, are not responsible for what the latter decide to do with the information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, if Person A tells Person B to kill Person C, Person A has simply exercised their freedom to express themselves and are not liable in any way for what Person B decides to do with the instruction. Person B can ignore Person A. The ball is entirely in Person B\u2019s court, because Person A has not acted violently (the key liberal trigger for legal sanction) towards anyone. If Person B does decide to try to, and perhaps succeed in, killing Person C, the latter or their families may only hold Person B liable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first speaker eagerly endorsed the second speaker\u2019s approach, and there is much validity in this conceptualisation. It is coherent and, on its face, satisfies liberal principle. It is however never a view that I have shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the question-and-answer session, I posed the following hypothetical scenario to the speaker:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine that there is an amateur painter from Austria with dreams of world domination. The painter, through power of charisma and populist appeal, rises to high government office. There, sitting behind a desk and never having conducted themselves violently towards anyone, they instruct subordinates to invade and conquer neighbouring countries and exterminate a notable portion of the civilian population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The painter never participates directly in these violent scenarios \u2013 only expresses themselves around the planning and implementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suppose, then, that the painter is after some time apprehended and arrested, or even killed, by those who oppose his expressions. In this scenario, would the apprehenders or neutralisers be guilty of violating the liberty of the amateur painter-turned-head of government?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To his credit, the speaker was able to bite the bullet and answer that yes, in fact, those sent to arrest or kill the amateur painter would be guilty of depriving the painter of their liberty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am not prepared to accept a socio-legal paradigm where it is those who hypothetically arrest or kill Adolf Hitler that are the guilty parties, with Hitler merely being a victim <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2023\/04\/06\/cancel-cancel-culture-not-so-fast\/\">who was cancelled<\/a> for his \u201coffensive speech.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such a paradigm is so basically repugnant to every human sensibility and only justifiable in the extreme reaches of abstraction where the mind of no normal person ever reaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It should be obvious to everyone, and is obvious to most, that if anyone bore primary responsibility for the Holocaust and Nazi imperialism in Europe, it was Hitler and his top echelons of leadership, not the millions of German soldiers, sailors, and airmen who were following instructions. The latter were guilty of many crimes to be sure, but this all occurred downstream from Hitler and others\u2019 decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Schemes of action<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Expression cannot always be severed from action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me<\/em> is a very important lesson to continue to teach children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it is unwise, and simply false, to pretend that the principle is not complicated when Person A says, \u201cI am going to take these sticks and stones to break your bones!\u201d or tells Person B to \u201ctake these sticks and stones and break Person C\u2019s bones!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Something else, beyond mere speech, is going on here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Person A is not merely expressing themselves. They are threatening or inciting violence against Person C. This turns their \u201cmere speech\u201d into a part of a scheme of action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is a bewildering proposition to tell Person C that they must wait until their bones have already been broken before they make take reciprocal steps against Persons A and B. This is a wild proposal to put to Person C, let alone to society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Person C, upon learning of Person A\u2019s design, must be (and in my view, is) allowed to take the directly or indirectly violent steps necessary to neutralise Person A and B. Certainly if Person C has <em>already<\/em> caused violent harm through threats or instruction, they are arrestable or even killable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The common law recognises this principle, even if modern law is reluctant to see it through in light of political sensitivities. But while the law recognises that \u201cthe threat itself is the crime,\u201d the proviso that the reasonable person must regard the threat as <em>sincere<\/em> is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Liberal principle also recognises the unworkability of free speech absolutism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Liberalism emphasises the importance of defensive force. People are and must be allowed to defend themselves, their loved ones, and their property, from violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This we all seem to accept. But what does this mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, if we are to take the position of free speech absolutism on its face, no person may take any defensive action until the tangible, direct violent harm from their attacker has already manifested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is only <em>after <\/em>they have begun shooting at you that one may shoot back. (Even if their first shot killed you\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is only <em>after <\/em>the punch has landed on your nose that one may shove the assailant back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is only <em>after <\/em>the intercontinental ballistic missile has vaporised a city that the launch platform of the missile may be targeted and destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the shooting starts, before the punch lands, and before the missile hits, only ideas, propositions, and intentions have become manifest, but harm has not yet resulted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not how liberalism\u2019s political theory reacts to schemes of action involving violence, because it does not satisfy liberalism\u2019s key demand of <em>actually<\/em> protecting liberty and property. If one must wait for one\u2019s liberty or property to have already suffered violent harm \u2013 perhaps fatally \u2013 before one may respond, one does not truly have a right to defend oneself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Threats and aggression<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, \u201charm\u201d is not the standard of measurement here. Violence (aggression, coercion) and the threat thereof are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every day people say and do things with harmful consequences. A medical aid might deny a claim for healthcare coverage. A foreign spaza shop owner might outcompete their native peers. A gossip magazine might ruin the reputation of a prominent person. One might even yell \u201cFire!\u201d in a crowded theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are all examples of \u201charm\u201d \u2013 and harm is a perfectly natural, normal component of social life. I shudder at the thought of how a society would look if harm were to be completely eliminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But not one of these are examples of violence, or violent harm. Violent harm occurs when the liberty or property of another is non-consensually violated. Consent is key, which is why being fired from a job or having a medical aid claim denied cannot amount to \u201cviolence\u201d as many on the left might claim it is, nor can yelling \u201cFire!\u201d in a theatre whose owners allow such theatrics be regarded as violent. <em>Volenti non fit iniuria<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And a sincere threat against the liberty or property of another ought to be \u2013 is, I submit \u2013 a <em>mala in se<\/em> (something criminal by its very nature), because it forms part of a scheme of action. Whether this scheme works out or not is perhaps a mitigating or aggravating factor at trial, but cannot extinguish the impermissibility of the threat <em>per se<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Liberty is always under threat, whether by amateur painters from Austria or by red beret-wearing Teletubbies from South Africa. We should start taking it seriously enough to defend it even from those who \u201cmerely\u201d threaten it. This is not a \u201cliberty\u201d (what a perverse thought!) that they have nor one we should recognise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Image: <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/jarmoluk-143740\/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2775447\">Michal Jarmoluk<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2775447\">Pixabay<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If you like what you have just read, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/fund-us\/\">support<\/a><em> the Daily Friend<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Free expression is an incredibly important part of the edifice of liberty. Offensive or repugnant expression must be unambiguously tolerated. But \u201cfree speech absolutism\u201d is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":48368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[115],"class_list":["post-48367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hitler-as-victim and free speech absolutism - Daily Friend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/12\/hitler-as-victim-and-free-speech-absolutism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hitler-as-victim and free speech absolutism - Daily Friend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Free expression is an incredibly important part of the edifice of liberty. Offensive or repugnant expression must be unambiguously tolerated. 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Martin also serves as the Editor of the IRR\u2019s 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.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.martinvanstaden.com"],"url":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/author\/martin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48367"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=48367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":48365,"date":"2024-12-12T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/?p=48365"},"modified":"2024-12-11T21:36:14","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T19:36:14","slug":"defying-new-morality-laws-could-cost-iranian-women-their-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/12\/defying-new-morality-laws-could-cost-iranian-women-their-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Defying new morality laws could cost Iranian women their lives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Execution, long jail terms and big fines for \u2018promoting\u2019 nudity, unveiling or improper dressing have come into force in Iran in terms of new laws intended to promote the \u201cculture of chastity and hijab\u201d, according to <em>The Guardian<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Women could face the death sentence or up to 15 years in prison if they defy the new compulsory morality laws due to come into effect this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, Iranian authorities have announced their intention of setting up \u201chijab clinics\u201d to treat women defying the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Article 37 of the new law also stipulates that those promoting or propagating indecency, unveiling or \u201cbad dressing\u201d to foreign entities, including international media and civil society organisations, could face a decade in prison and up to \u00a312,500 in fines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those whose conduct is considered by the authorities to amount to \u201ccorruption on Earth\u201d could be sentenced to death under article 286 of Iran\u2019s Islamic penal code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Guardian<\/em> reports that, according to Amnesty International, this legal provision in effect meant that women and girls sending videos of themselves unveiled to media outside Iran or \u201cotherwise engaging in peaceful activism\u201d may be sentenced to death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iranian journalists, activists, clerics and human rights lawyers have expressed outrage over the law, which they say will legitimise the increasing restrictions on women in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Saeid Dehghan, a human rights lawyer at the Parsi Law Collective, is quoted as saying: \u201cNearly all provisions of this law contravene fundamental principles, such as article 9 of the Iranian constitution, which prohibits legislation that undermines citizens\u2019 freedoms even in the name of national sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe [new] law stipulates lengthy prison sentences for those persistently opposing mandatory hijab and encouraging others to do the same. Citizens opposing mandatory hijab face punishments, such as long imprisonment or even execution, which are grossly disproportionate to their actions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The law came into place two years after nationwide protests rocked the country after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, jailed for not wearing her hijab correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the past two years, Iranian women have been publicly defying the strict dress code. Last month, videos of a young Iranian student stripping to her underwear, reportedly in protest at the strict dress code, went viral across social media. She was later taken to an undisclosed psychiatric hospital in the capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>[Image: <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@onetnya_?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash\">andri onet<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/woman-wearing-blue-hijab-scarf-oucFDKkHi4Y?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash\">Unsplash<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Execution, long jail terms and big fines for \u2018promoting\u2019 nudity, unveiling or improper dressing have come into force in Iran in terms of new laws<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":48366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"coauthors":[94],"class_list":["post-48365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site 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– subduing\u00a0free\u00a0speech | TDF special\/FSU with Simon Lincoln Reader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In this Daily Friend Show Special Sara Gon interviews DF contributor and fund manager, Simon Lincoln Reader, about the bizarre and chilling clamping down on free speech in Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Britain - subduing\u00a0free\u00a0speech | TDF special\/FSU with Simon Lincoln Reader\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JuWXQvEFCvc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@DailyFriendSA\"><\/a><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@DailyFriendSA\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this Daily Friend Show Special Sara Gon interviews DF contributor and fund manager, Simon Lincoln Reader, about the bizarre and chilling clamping down on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":48364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"coauthors":[97],"class_list":["post-48363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcasts","post_format-post-format-video"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Britain - subduing\u00a0free\u00a0speech | TDF special\/FSU with Simon Lincoln Reader - Daily Friend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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coming showdown over racial quotas: To defy or comply"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>For the ANC, the key metric of how well the party is doing and the progress it is making towards its nirvana of the National Democratic Revolution is whether company ownership and employment patterns match the racial and gender breakdown of the country\u2019s population.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no sign that the ANC is in the mood to compromise on this. The party is a lot more about distribution than growing the economic pie, and it is prepared to trade off economic growth for distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the ANC might have over-reached with the passage of the Employment Equity Amendment Act, signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa last year. The Act is due to be implemented in January next year. There is likely to be a showdown soon afterwards, when the Minister of Employment and Labour, Nomakhosazana Meth, comes up with the racial employment quotas she wants companies to implement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Act, when in force, will allow the Minister of Employment and Labour to decree racial and gender targets for each economic sector. Companies with more than 50 employees are covered by this law and will have to come up with plans to meet the new government targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A failure to comply with the Act allows the state to impose ruinous fines, which could push some firms into bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And non-compliant firms are barred from doing business with the State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week Sakeliga urged its more than 12,000 members to defy the new law, if they think this is in their best interests. \u201cBusinesses should prepare for maximum achievable non-cooperation with the irrational, harmful, and unconstitutional act for as long as it takes to have it scrapped or rendered practically impotent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSakeliga encourages business-people to remain firm and not make any changes to their employment policies for the sake of the Employment Equity Act.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sakeliga CEO Piet Le Roux said there was no need to immediately rush to comply with the Act, as the Minister has yet to state what employment targets will be implemented for each sector. When more is known about the ministerial requirements and racial quotas, Sakeliga will go to court to challenge the legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Watershed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This must be a watershed. For the first time since 1994, a business body has stood up and urged defiance of legislation that is fundamentally against the interests of its members. In contrast with Sakeliga, big business in the country, which is close to the government and objects to little, has kept its silence about the Act. It tends to go along to get along and steer away from confrontation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another business association, the National Employers’ Association of South Africa (NEASA) which has 7000 small and medium-sized business members, shares Sakeliga\u2019s views that the Act is unconstitutional, but says non-compliance is far too risky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sakeliga points out in its statement that, \u201cthe (Employment and Labour) department and state in general lacks the capability and resources to police employers at the scale required.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if that is the case, NEASA\u2019s Chief Executive Gerhard Papenfus says that defiance might expose employers to unnecessary prosecution. NEASA\u2019s approach, \u201cat least for the time being,\u201d is to comply with the reporting requirements, \u201cbut to never deviate from the principle of appointing on merit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NEASA says at some stage the new regulation will be challenged on a constitutional basis as it infringes on the basic right of businesses to conduct their business in a manner that they deem fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When they report under the Act, NEASA says companies should give reasons why they cannot comply with the targets due to a host of reasons, including the rising financial pressures on payroll, skills shortages, and the heavy investment that would be required in training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That might force the ANC to see the big trade-off: more affirmative action in the workplace in exchange for less investment and the heightened risk of firms going out of business. There is the wider economic cost that many companies might ensure that they do not take on more staff and remain below the threshold for compliance with the Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Loss of capacity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The damage from the ANC\u2019s vision of employment equity has been amply demonstrated in the public sector. It has resulted in major loss of capacity as a result of \u201ccadre deployment\u201d, and today the state is increasingly dysfunctional. A ministerial insistence on hiring could easily drive companies into operational inefficiencies and bankruptcy. Frequent changes in racial quotas can only create further uncertainty and discourage investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is the additional problem that the implementation of racial quotas would be illegal in the home countries of some foreign companies. That would be a real investment-killer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most benign outcome might be that the Department of Employment and Labour imposes racial quotas but accepts reasons why a company cannot implement these and takes a soft approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year the Department reached a deal with the trade union Solidarity on the implementation of the Act. Under a deal brokered by the International Labour Organisation, race cannot be used to determine who is hired, fired or promoted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Race also cannot be used as the sole consideration in employment equity plans. How the department will balance this with its plans has yet to be seen. Significantly, the ILO has also said that affirmative action can only be used as a temporary measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ANC is very unlikely to back down on what it sees as central to its empowerment cause. It sees advances on this front as key to it upholding its ideology and defending itself from criticism from its left and more populist flank: the Economic Freedom Fighters and uMkhonto weSizwe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So a variety of groups will join Sakeliga and NEASA in resorting to lawfare through the courts. Anthea Jeffery, the Head of Policy Research at the Institute of Race Relations, who has written extensively about the legal aspects of employment equity and empowerment, says the Act is seriously flawed and inconsistent with various provisions of the Constitution, including the core value of \u201cnon-racialism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prohibits unfair discrimination<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She also points out that the equality clause in Section 9 of the Constitution, Section 9, prohibits unfair discrimination on racial grounds. And while a third clause calls for a public administration that is \u201cbroadly representative,\u201d it makes it clear that this cannot trump other needs such as the effective use of resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This provides a good basis for Constitutional Court challenges, but as is the case generally with the law, it can take a very long time for things to happen. One positive aspect of the Employment Equity Amendment Act is that it has galvanised a very motivated opposition to racial quotas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps merit can ultimately triumph over racial preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Note:<\/em><\/strong><em> A number of the reports in the IRR\u2019s <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/irr.org.za\/reports\">Blueprint for Growth<\/a><em> series were used in writing this column. This includes the report on <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/irr.org.za\/reports\/the-irr-blueprint-for-growth\/the-irrs-blueprint-for-growth-breaking-the-bee-barrier-to-growth\">Breaking the BEE Barrier to Growth<\/a><em> by Dr Anthea Jeffery.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>[Image:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/peggy_marco-1553824\/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1013594\">Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1013594\">Pixabay<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If you like what you have just read, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/fund-us\/\">support<\/a><em> the Daily Friend<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the ANC, the key metric of how well the party is doing and the progress it is making towards its nirvana of the National<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":48357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[95],"class_list":["post-48356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - 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His articles have appeared on DefenceWeb, Politicsweb, as well as in a number of overseas publications. Katzenellenbogen has also worked on Business Day and as a TV and radio reporter and newsreader. 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His articles have appeared on DefenceWeb, Politicsweb, as well as in a number of overseas publications. Katzenellenbogen has also worked on Business Day and as a TV and radio reporter and newsreader. He has a Master's degree in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.","url":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/author\/jonathan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48356"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=48356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":48354,"date":"2024-12-11T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/?p=48354"},"modified":"2024-12-10T16:12:07","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T14:12:07","slug":"three-part-solution-could-break-bela-impasse-irr-proposes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/11\/three-part-solution-could-break-bela-impasse-irr-proposes\/","title":{"rendered":"Three-part solution could break BELA impasse, IRR proposes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>A three-part solution incorporating building<\/strong> <strong>13,000 new classrooms, tapping into international expertise to solve South Africa\u2019s grave education deficiencies, and making sure that language is not abused for racial ends could resolve the impasse over the controversial clauses in the Basic Education Law Amendment (BELA) Act.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So says the Institute of Race Relations (IRR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a statement, it says that IRR Legal has written to the Presidency and to Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube to share these ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The proposed solution has three parts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The state builds an additional 13,000 classrooms beyond what is currently planned in public schools across the country;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Concurrently, Minister Gwarube empanels experts to study why South Africa has the world\u2019s worst education system on a value-for-money basis, and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Relevant parties commit to investigating and terminating any cases where language policy is used for a racially exclusive purpose.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Taking these steps while clauses four and five remain suspended, the IRR argues, \u201cis a solution that is both credible and that \u2018everyone\u2019 can \u2018buy into\u2019, as desired by President Cyril Ramaphosa\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cClassrooms are a limiting factor to learning in South Africa\u2019s public schools. In the last two decades major investments were necessary to connect 15,263 schools with electricity, 8,823 with water, and 3,265 with toilets, according to official reports to Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese accomplishments are impressive. However, consolidation of infrastructure quality has come in part through shrinking the quantity of public schools from 26,789 in 2000 to 22,511 in 2023, a 16% reduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile more needs to be done to replace pit latrines at public schools, it is concurrently necessary to move on from consolidating public school infrastructure to growing public school infrastructure with speed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The IRR points out that, last year, the Department of Basic Education\u2019s Head of Infrastructure, David van der Westhuizen, said that South Africa needed \u201csomewhere between 35,000 and 70,000 classrooms\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOn the other hand, there were only 1,261 Afrikaans (single medium) schools in the latest official report of 2020, which is roughly 5.5% of total public schools. BELA sponsors repeatedly alleged that a key purpose of the controversial BELA clauses that make it easier for government officials to rewrite public school language and admissions policies was to address the deficit of classrooms in previously disadvantaged schools by forcing Afrikaans schools to become dual medium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAdding 13,000 classrooms would mean adding ten times more classrooms than the total number of Afrikaans schools. Building new classrooms, rather than turning Afrikaans classrooms into English classrooms, is a solution that everyone who has the best interest of children on their minds can buy into.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using previous data released by the Department of Basic Education, the IRR says it is estimated that 13,000 classrooms can be built for R17 billion, which ought to be provided in a revenue-neutral manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>International expertise should be brough to bear, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn the 2010s, South Africa was reported to have the \u201cworld\u2019s worst\u201d public school system on a value-for-money basis. Since then, results have gotten worse, as 81% of grade 4s were found to be functionally illiterate, according to the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) report, ranking South Africa as the worst country on record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOn the other hand, a 2023 report by the Centre for Development and Enterprise indicated that South African teachers \u2018are well paid in comparison with their peers in richer countries, earning on average R42,700 per month before tax, including benefits\u2019. Stats SA data indicate that this places the average teacher comfortably within the top 3% of income earners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So why such bad results?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWorld record high levels of teacher absenteeism are just one indication of bad management. The documentation attached to BELA in Parliament reveals a knowledge gap through root-cause analysis of the country\u2019s shocking public school failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe inclusion of international experts from regions or countries that have managed to get much better results than South Africa\u2019s public school system while spending much less per student, including India and Nigeria, is vital to explain what practical solutions can be implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, the IRR argues that the Constitution provides essential guidance, both on mother-tongue education, and racialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAccording to the Constitution, \u2018the state must consider all reasonable educational alternatives, including single medium institutions\u2019, and according to a majority judgment of the Constitutional Court, when single language schools are already functioning \u2018the state bears the negative duty not to take away or diminish the right\u2019 to education in that language \u2018without appropriate justification\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of heightened relevance to the BELA controversy, the state has a duty not to take away or diminish the right to learn in Afrikaans at existing Afrikaans schools. All workable solutions are guard-railed by that legal fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOn the other hand, no entity, including a school, may deliberately use language as a mechanism for racial exclusion. If individuals conspire to change any school policy with the explicit purpose of racial exclusivity in admissions, this conduct is unlawful and antisocial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The IRR recommends: \u201cAll parties should be eager to show common purpose by pledging not to use language as a racial proxy, while the state takes the practical steps of growing public schools by 13,000 classrooms and analysing the root cause of failure from solutions-oriented experts with proven track records of improving literacy and numeracy for hundreds of millions of children around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>[Image: <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/tho-ge-113537\/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=8391795\">Thomas G.<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=8391795\">Pixabay<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A three-part solution incorporating building 13,000 new classrooms, tapping into international expertise to solve South Africa\u2019s grave education deficiencies, and making sure that language is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":48355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[198,2],"tags":[],"coauthors":[94],"class_list":["post-48354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dispatches","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - 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It seeks to get there over a period of 30 to 40 years and by largely democratic means, rather than a violent revolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since 1994, the ANC has adopted a host of NDR laws in many different spheres. These aim at hobbling the capitalist economy, eroding confidence in free markets, increasing state control, and promoting dependency on the government for all core needs, from education and housing to healthcare and transport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For 30 years, the ANC had more than enough seats in Parliament to pass NDR laws by simple (51%) majority. In the May 2024 election, however, it won only 40% of the seats in the National Assembly. It now forms part of a government of national unity (GNU) with nine other political parties, including the market-orientated Democratic Alliance (DA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the GNU assumed power in July 2024, it has had positive effects on the rand, bond yields, interest rates, and business confidence. It has helped rekindle interest in South Africa as a potential investment destination and buttressed hopes of higher growth, more jobs and better state delivery. Does the GNU also mean that the NDR has been defeated and will in time be rolled back?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The ANC\u2019s negotiating strategy on the GNU<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ANC seems to have worked out its negotiating strategy on the GNU well in advance. (This is also what it did in the people\u2019s war period from 1984 to 1994, when its Moscow mentors helped guide it on how to dominate any constitutional negotiations that might ensue and ensure that its preferred outcomes were achieved.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the May 2024 election, President Cyril Ramaphosa was quick to accept its outcomes. He interpreted the results as a mandate for the ANC and other parties to work together and took pains to project an image of pragmatism and moderation. Behind the scenes, however, he also sought to expand the ANC\u2019s power and diminish the DA\u2019s influence within the GNU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Much of this was achieved via the Declaration of Intent agreed by the ANC and the DA on 14 June 2024, the date the Constitution required the election of a new president. The ANC on its own could no longer secure the presidency for Mr Ramaphosa as it had held only 159 seats out of 400 in the National Assembly. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politicsweb.co.za\/opinion\/part-i-anc-and-the-south-african-state-in-context-\">ANC thus persuaded the DA with its 89 seats<\/a> to vote for Mr Ramaphosa as president and for Thoko Didiza as speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The DA agreed to do so in return for the Declaration\u2019s rather vague promises of proportionality in cabinet appointments. The Declaration also said that disputes within the GNU would be settled by \u201csufficient consensus\u201d: ie, with the support of GNU parties holding 60% of the seats in the National Assembly. The document added that, whenever new parties wanted to be admitted to the GNU, \u201cthe composition [of the coalition] would be discussed and agreed amongst the existing parties\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In practice, however, the safeguards in the Declaration soon withered away. After Mr Ramaphosa had been elected president, the ANC began to emphasise that the Constitution gave him the prerogative to appoint his cabinet as he saw fit \u2013 and that this power could not be curtailed by a mere Declaration of Intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ANC also claimed that the clause requiring the consent of existing GNU members for the admission of new parties would take effect only after the GNU had been established. Acting on this basis, the ANC soon drew in another seven parties, in addition to the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) whose inclusion had been agreed to from the start. This influx of small parties reduced the ANC\u2019s dependence on the DA to remain in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With ten parties in the GNU, the demand for cabinet posts was enormous. Partly for this reason, Mr Ramaphosa in time opted for a bloated cabinet comprising 34 people. The ANC had 20 ministers, as well as the President and the Deputy-President. This meant it held roughly 65% of all cabinet posts. By contrast, the DA was accorded six cabinet posts out of 34 or some 18%. At the deputy minister level, the ANC held 31 out of 38 posts (roughly 82%), while the DA held five out of 38 (a mere 13%). Yet the DA had won 87 seats in Parliament as against the 159 won by the ANC and should have received many more cabinet posts on a proportional basis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201csufficient consensus\u201d requirement was negated too. By the time the GNU took power, the ANC and the various small parties within it \u2013 excluding the DA, the IFP, and the Freedom Front Plus \u2013 held 62% of the seats in the National Assembly. This meant that the ANC would generally be able to secure the 60% support needed to show \u201csufficient consensus\u201d for a contested decision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As political analyst RW Johnson puts it, the ANC \u201cdouble-crossed the DA\u201d. It also neutralised three key gains the DA believed it had achieved. As the DA saw it, the ANC had lost its hegemony, it had accepted the election result, and it had chosen the DA as its key partner. This might have seemed to be the case when the DA signed the Declaration of Intent on 14 June. But by the time Mr Ramaphosa announced his Cabinet on 30 June, these supposed gains had largely evaporated. This signalled that the ANC had <em>not<\/em> in fact accepted the election outcome. Instead, it had actively worked to bypass it and preserve its capacity for domination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Declaration of Intent had another defect too, for it constituted no more than \u201ca guide\u201d for tiers of government outside the national one. This proved particularly important in Gauteng, where the DA had won 22 out of 80 seats to the ANC\u2019s 28. This gave the two an almost equal number of seats (a ratio of 45 to 55). If Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi had allocated positions in the provincial cabinet on a proportional basis, the DA would have had roughly the same number of MECs as the ANC. Instead, Lesufi offered the DA three MEC positions out of ten, which the DA declined to accept. At local government level, a DA-led coalition governing the Tshwane metropole with a narrow majority <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biznews.com\/interviews\/2024\/12\/03\/coalition-chaos-cilliers-brink-tshwane\">was soon ousted by the ANC<\/a>, with the help of a small non-GNU party, ActionSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These developments suggest that the ANC\u2019s aim in setting up the GNU was not only to remain in power but also to keep implementing the NDR. What other evidence is there of this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The ANC\u2019s continued commitment to the NDR<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That the ANC remains committed to the NDR was perhaps most clearly evident in October 2024, when it launched a new \u201cfoundation course\u201d on political education for its members. One of the primary goals of this course is to \u201cinstil a clear commitment to the National Democratic Revolution (NDR)\u201d among all its members, both old and new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the legislative sphere, Mr Ramaphosa could have declined to give his assent to various controversial bills that had been rushed through Parliament in the months before the May election. Instead, the president has signed into law not only the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill but also the Public Procurement Bill and the Climate Change Bill. The organisation plans to bring the Employment Equity Amendment Act \u2013 with its state-mandated racial quotas for private sector employers \u2013 into operation on 1 January 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, the ANC is pressing ahead with implementing the NHI Act to which Mr Ramaphosa assented in mid-May 2024, a fortnight before the election. This is a particularly damaging statute which the DA had previously vowed to fight in the courts, but which it now cannot easily contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In September 2024, Mr Ramaphosa acknowledged some of the resistance to the NHI by inviting Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) to provide him with \u201cspecific proposals on the remaining issues of concern as a basis for further engagement\u201d on the Act. The president gave BUSA three months for this task. This deadline expires on 19 December 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, this additional consultation with organised business is unlikely to result in any significant changes. With the NHI Act already part of the law, Parliament alone has the power to change it via a suitable amendment bill. In addition, health minister Aaron Motsoaledi has refused to negotiate on the most damaging clause of all (Section 33), which is likely to terminate all medical schemes once the NHI is fully operative. That clause will stay as is, the minister has said, even if this signals the end of the GNU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether any real progress has been made on the BELA Act remains uncertain too. When Mr Ramaphosa signed the measure into law in September 2024, he agreed to postpone the implementation of two contested clauses giving provincial education departments increased powers over school language and admission policies. These clauses are set to take effect on 13 December 2024 unless agreement on alternatives is reached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Late in November 2024, the presidency, the minister of basic education and the Solidarity trade union (in a process facilitated by the National Economic Development and Labour Council or Nedlac, and aimed at averting a possible strike by teachers belonging to Solidarity) agreed that the two clauses would be implemented only in January 2026. In the intervening period, the education minister (currently the DA\u2019s Siviwe Gwarube) would adopt regulations to ensure, for example, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.da.org.za\/2024\/11\/everyone-must-respect-the-agreement-on-the-bela-act-reached-at-nedlac\">that schools which were already full were not compelled to admit more pupils<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since this news broke, the presidency has effectively denied having been a party to the Nedlac agreement. In addition, both Mr Ramaphosa and Deputy President Paul Mashatile are adamant that any changes to the BELA Act must be agreed by a recently established GNU disputes committee. At the same time, the ANC has issued a statement condemning the DA for its supposed attempts \u201cto bypass established processes in a desperate bid to perpetuate apartheid-era standards in our education system\u201d. According to Solidarity, however, the Nedlac agreement was properly concluded, remains binding, and must be taken into account in any GNU negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Other committed supporters of the NDR<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SACP, which still has great influence within the ANC, is adamant that the NDR must proceed. Towards this end, it wants not only a Basic Income Grant, but also the introduction of a National Social Security Fund. This Fund is likely in time to put an end to private pensions, in much the same way as the NHI will put an end to private medical schemes. The SACP also seeks prescribed assets, a wealth tax, the introduction of various state banks, and an end to \u201causterity\u201d measures aimed at controlling public debt. To reduce unemployment, it wants the state to provide public employment to some 2 million people by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Umkhonto we Sizwe Party (MKP), now the official opposition, wants even more radical NDR interventions. Among other things, the MKP wants to amend the Constitution to eliminate the doctrine of judicial review, under which the Constitutional Court is empowered to strike down laws inconsistent with the Bill of Rights. This would restore the damaging doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty that prevailed in the apartheid period. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politicsweb.co.za\/politics\/disunity-in-gnu-can-reverse-the-gains-of-transform\">MKP also wants to change the Constitution\u2019s property clause<\/a> to facilitate the nationalisation of land and other natural resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The MKP claims to have many sleeper members within the ANC. This, it says, will enable it to take control of the ANC at its next elective national conference, due in 2027. Were this to happen, an ANC under new leadership could oust the DA from the GNU and form a new coalition government with the MKP (which has 58 seats in the National Assembly) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which has 39.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, whether a new coalition government of this kind would in fact be formed seems unlikely. On the contrary, the ANC alliance might prefer to keep the current GNU in place until the 2029 election to help advance the revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Using the GNU to advance the NDR<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keeping the current GNU in place until the next general election in 2029 could assist the NDR in several ways. First, this would avoid a switch to an overtly radical \u201cdoomsday\u201d coalition that would roil bond and equity markets, choke off new investment, and undermine the public\/private partnerships needed to resolve energy, transport, and water crises. In this adverse scenario, the ANC could lose even more voter support in the 2029 election. By contrast, if jobs and delivery improve, the ANC could obtain an outright majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second, the DA could be significantly weakened by five years in the GNU. On BELA, for example, the DA\u2019s mandate from its voters is to oppose the Act, if necessary by going to court and having it struck down. Many of its supporters dislike the partial solutions the DA has instead been seeking to achieve. If, by 2029, the DA has in practice gone along with the ANC on a host of damaging NDR laws \u2013 on EE, BEE, the NHI, preferential public procurement and a new Expropriation Bill, to name but some examples \u2013 the party could lose significant support in 2029.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Third, the ANC sees the GNU as an equivalent of Lenin\u2019s New Economic Policy (NEP) and may thus want to keep it in place until it has fulfilled its function. The NEP was introduced in the Soviet Union in 1921 to prevent a mass peasant rebellion and stabilise a failing economy. To help achieve these goals, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) claimed to be moving away from socialism. It said it wanted a free-market system under state control, with socialised state enterprises operating on a for-profit basis. NEP reforms and reassurances were effective in increasing private sector investment, raising the growth rate, stimulating competition and reducing inflation. These gains helped revive the economy and lay the foundation for faster industrialisation. Once enough had been achieved, the NEP was jettisoned in 1928 and the shift to socialism continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That the ANC sees the GNU as an NEP equivalent is apparent from what Mmamoloko Kubayi, then human settlements minister, wrote in the <em>Sunday Times<\/em> in August 2024 under the title \u201cA strategic retreat by the ANC to advance its cause<em>\u201d<\/em>. Here Ms Kubayi explained: “The [NEP] example demonstrate[s] that entering a political coalition with political opponents for a specific purpose is not anathema in carrying out a revolution.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the words of constitutional jurist Koos Malan, Ms Kubayi\u2019s analysis shows the ANC is using the GNU to \u201cmake a strategic retreat to enable future advances. It still aims to destroy the DA and to bring the private sector and civil society to heel under its totalitarian control\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The NDR prevails unless it is rolled back<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Five years of the GNU could witness the adoption of many more NDR laws. To begin with, the ANC and its GNU allies have 62% of the seats in the National Assembly \u2013 enough to show \u201csufficient consensus\u201d on what the ANC wants and to prevail over DA objections. Second, many ANC ministers will be able to use their regulatory powers to flesh out framework statutes (on EE and preferential procurement, for instance), with many harmful ancillary rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, so many NDR laws are already on the Statute Book that the NDR will keep doing its damage even without any new interventions. So long as current NDR laws remain in place, South Africa will battle to attract fixed investment, push up the growth rate, or counter the unemployment crisis. In this situation, the free-market economy will continue to limp along \u2013 while the alternative \u201cremedy\u201d of expanding state control and citizen dependency will become more credible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best way to defeat the NDR is to halt its further advance and then start rolling it back with singular determination and considerable speed. What the GNU needs to do \u2013 in an echo of President Xavier Milei\u2019s actions in Argentina \u2013 is to take a chainsaw to the thicket of NDR rules the ANC has already imposed on the country. Sadly, the ANC has so structured the GNU that the coalition government has little prospect of attempting this, let alone achieving it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>[Image: <\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/openclipart-vectors-30363\/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=159019\">OpenClipart-Vectors<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=159019\">Pixabay<\/a><\/em><em>]<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If you like what you have just read, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/fund-us\/\">support<\/a><em> the Daily Friend<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the 30 years since 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies in the South African Communist Party (SACP), the Congress of South<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":48352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[98],"class_list":["post-48350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can the GNU defeat the NDR? - Daily Friend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/10\/can-the-gnu-defeat-the-ndr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can the GNU defeat the NDR? - Daily Friend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the 30 years since 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies in the South African Communist Party (SACP), the Congress of South\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/10\/can-the-gnu-defeat-the-ndr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daily Friend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/irrsouthafrica\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-12-10T02:10:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-09T18:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/fist.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"822\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"565\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anthea Jeffery\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@DailyFriendSA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@DailyFriendSA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anthea Jeffery\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"13 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/10\/can-the-gnu-defeat-the-ndr\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/10\/can-the-gnu-defeat-the-ndr\/\",\"name\":\"Can the GNU defeat the NDR? 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She has authored 12 books, including Countdown to Socialism - The National Democratic Revolution in South Africa since 1994, People\u2019s War: New Light on the Struggle for South Africa and BEE: Helping or Hurting? 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She has authored 12 books, including Countdown to Socialism - The National Democratic Revolution in South Africa since 1994, People\u2019s War: New Light on the Struggle for South Africa and BEE: Helping or Hurting? She has also written extensively on property rights, land reform, the mining sector, the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) system, and a growth-focused alternative to BEE.","url":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/author\/anthea\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48350"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=48350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":48347,"date":"2024-12-10T04:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T02:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/?p=48347"},"modified":"2024-12-09T19:50:54","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T17:50:54","slug":"should-medicines-be-advertised-to-consumers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/10\/should-medicines-be-advertised-to-consumers\/","title":{"rendered":"Should medicines be advertised to consumers?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>RFK Jr. wants to ban direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicine in the US. Most countries, including South Africa, do ban it. Should they?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/rfk-jr-trump-vaccines-779495533a80ba142086a9621d75a59c\">institutionalising vaccine scepticism<\/a> by promoting false beliefs about vaccine safety, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as the Secretary-in-waiting of Health and Human Services under next year\u2019s Trump 2.0 administration in the US, has set his sights on pharmaceutical advertising in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As any visitor to the US will have noticed, its media is filled with advertising for prescription medicines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They\u2019re often quite amusing, promising an end to all suffering and a new life filled with sunny meadows, puppy dogs and loving families, before rattling off a legally required list of terrifying side-effects which often include a painful death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Good idea<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When RFK Jr. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/politics\/government\/robert-f-kennedy-jr-s-calls-to-ban-one-of-big-pharma-s-most-powerful-tools-rattle-drugmakers\/ar-AA1v2CLk\">called for banning prescription-drug advertising<\/a>, my first reaction \u2013 living in a country where only over-the-counter medicines may be advertised to consumers \u2013 was that this seemed like a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After all, it takes a great deal of training to competently treat disease and to understand how medicines work. Medicines are dangerous. They have side-effects. They have contra-indications. They have cross-reactions with other drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is already worrisome how many people visit doctors merely to declare what the internet told them is the matter, and to demand medication recommended by someone on social media. If I were a doctor, I\u2019d already be going <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gregory_House\">Dr. House<\/a> on these \u201cI did my own research\u201d types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Only in the US and New Zealand is it legal to advertise prescription medicines direct to consumers, which suggests that almost everyone thinks banning it is a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, pharmaceutical companies in the US <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/morning-breakout\/pharma-analysts-mull-risks-of-rfk-jr-s-proposed-ban-on-lucrative-ads\/\">do not think it\u2019s a good idea<\/a> to stop the lucrative business of advertising to consumers, but since I am not a shill for Big Pharma (contrary to routine insults from both left- and right-wing critics), I don\u2019t particularly care what they think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bad idea<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then I read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/johngoodman\/2024\/11\/24\/what-the-fda-gets-wrong-about-drug-ads\/\">an opinion piece<\/a> by John C. Goodman, a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, who has a doctorate in economics and promotes market-based solutions to public policy problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He makes an excellent case that banning direct-to-consumer prescription medicine advertising is a bad idea, even if those medicines cannot be bought without a prescription in any case. Even requiring the silly high-speed side-effects and contra-indications warning goes too far for Goodman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He argues convincingly that people are not taking too many prescription drugs, but are taking too few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cStudies show that we get our best return in medicine on drugs,\u201d he writes. \u201cPer dollar spent, the return on investing in drug therapy is much higher than what we are getting from investing in doctor care or hospital therapies. For example, Columbia University\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S2211883713000646\">Frank Lichtenberg<\/a> has estimated that three quarters of the increase in life expectancy that we\u2019ve enjoyed in recent decades is the sole result of our adoption of modern drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many people who can be helped by medication suffer needlessly because they simply don\u2019t know that these medicines exist, which is why they haven\u2019t bothered to see a doctor about their complaints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe social value of drug advertising is that it alerts patients to the fact that there is a possible remedy for a chronic illness,\u201d writes Goodman. \u201cThe payoff is that the viewer might seek medical advice from a doctor and get a prescription, where appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He argues that the list of side-effects in an advertisement has no value, not only because nobody pays attention to them, but also because side-effects, contra-indications and drug interactions are topics best addressed with a doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Convincing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This argument seems convincing to me, especially if you consider it from the liberal perspective that the government shouldn\u2019t be in the business of suppressing information or banning free speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is ironic, then, that an incoming administration that claims to support free speech and free markets (though <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2024\/10\/09\/neither-harris-nor-trump-is-a-friend-of-free-speech\/\">these claims<\/a> are <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/09\/17\/trump-misrepresents-or-misunderstands-trade-tariffs\/\">utter nonsense<\/a>) is intent on prohibiting pharmaceutical advertising to consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prohibiting such advertising withholds information that might prompt people to ask a doctor about medication for chronic or acute illnesses. Not only does this cause unnecessary suffering (and even death), but it also steers people away from conventional medicine and into the arms of quacks who peddle alternative (read: unproven) medicine, and who are not hobbled by an advertising ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Goodman\u2019s argument is that there is no harm in advertising medicines to consumers, since they must consult a doctor anyway, and it is up to the doctor to decide whether a particular drug is appropriate for that patient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hard drugs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This raises another question, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like many libertarians, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/opinionista\/2016-11-21-legalise-it-the-war-on-drugs-has-failed\/\">I have argued<\/a> that possession and use of recreational drugs should not be illegal. The war on drugs has failed, and has caused more harm than good, because the drugs fight back. This war has destroyed the lives of a large number of victimless offenders and incentivises brutal criminal syndicates that perpetuate the war against the state, with civilians as collateral damage. Prohibition is a counter-productive policy, which is why even hard drugs ought to be at least decriminalised, and perhaps fully legalised. Substance use should be a matter of personal choice. Addiction and substance abuse should be a medical problem and not a police matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why, then, should medicines be subject to prescription regulation at all? If one ought to be able to purchase recreational drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, heroin or methamphetamine for personal use, then why should methotrexate, benzodiazepine, opiates and opioids, statins, prednisone, omeprazole, dexedrine, insulin, antidepressants or antibiotics be kept behind a paywall, controlled by a cartel of licensed professionals?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Conflict<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is one of the few issues on which I have never been able to form a well-considered opinion that can stand up to reasonable challenges. My view on recreational drugs conflicts with my view on scheduled medicines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While I\u2019m certain that nobody ought to be criminally prosecuted for the possession or use of any drug, provided they do not infringe the rights of others in doing so, I\u2019m far from convinced the sale of drugs, either medicinal and recreational, should not be restricted and regulated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On one hand, people ought to know that drugs can be both addictive and dangerous, and should have the sense to consult experts (i.e. doctors) before taking them. If they choose not to, well, they have a right to be stupid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Government exists to protect people from others, not from themselves. A government that begins to protect people from themselves will be on a slippery slope to totalitarianism. Next they\u2019ll be prescribing diets, and exercise regimes, and bedtimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, it is clear to me that an entirely free market in medicines would likely cause a lot of accidental misery and death, even if these harms are self-inflicted, and that the existing system of medicine control seems sensible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Liberty versus safety<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet this is not as good an argument as it sounds. We also choose to live in a largely free society, despite the fact that police states are often better at suppressing crime and assuring individual safety (provided you don\u2019t raise the ire of the regime, of course).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Liberty brings with it personal risks that we consider worth taking. Why shouldn\u2019t it be so with medicines?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this case, I don\u2019t have an answer. I remain open to arguments both for and against scheduling medicines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to RFK Jr.\u2019s proposal to ban direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising, however, which prompted me to read up on the idea, I have now been convinced that it should be perfectly legal, and South Africa\u2019s prohibition on pharmaceutical advertising should end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>[Image: Vintage poster advertisement for medicine, from publicdomainpictures.net.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If you like what you have just read, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/fund-us\/\">support<\/a><em> the Daily Friend<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RFK Jr. wants to ban direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicine in the US. Most countries, including South Africa, do ban it. Should they? In addition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":48349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[96],"class_list":["post-48347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Should medicines be advertised to consumers? - Daily Friend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dailyfriend.co.za\/2024\/12\/10\/should-medicines-be-advertised-to-consumers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should medicines be advertised to consumers? - Daily Friend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RFK Jr. wants to ban direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicine in the US. 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