Rolling blackouts: Sakeliga survey reveals businesses want industrial-scale energy independence
Loadshedding has cost businesses dearly, forcing them to become less dependent on Eskom. Businesspeople strongly believe electricity generation and distribution must be privatised, and regard energy shortages as a top social and political priority.
2021 Mini-budget confirms the merit of Sakeliga’s strategy of state-proofing
Sakeliga regards Thursday’s mid-year budget update from National Treasury as another confirmation of the need for businesses and communities to state-proof themselves as much as possible. Finance minister Enoch Gondongwana’s mini-budget confirmed that the government does not take seriously enough the fiscal crisis it has created since 2009. The government has committed to incur 350 to 400 billion rand – around 6% of GDP – worth of new […]
How does one keep up with the avalanche of authoritarian policy?
While the President tries to fool South Africans about him apparently being a reformer and that we are approaching his so-called “New Dawn”, the economy is being suffocated and the country is being placed on the path of irreparable decline. South Africa is now inundated with laws, regulations, and public policies that are simply riddled […]
Economic opportunities with calls for vigilance on restrictions – Sakeliga Report
The economy for business in Q2 2021 Businesses should not miss opportunities in the current economic upswing driven by a reprieve from the severe restrictions of 2020 and policies that encourage consumption, but vigilance in monitoring new Covid restrictions must be maintained. These are some of the insights contained in the Sakeliga-ETM report Economic Highlights […]
Sakeliga exposes government pseudo-“study” used to support deprivation of property rights
The business group Sakeliga has just released a government impact study on the Expropriation Bill obtained through a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) request. It appears that prior to Sakeliga’s PAIA-request, the study has been withheld from public consideration. The document, a socio-economic impact assessment (SEIA) initiated by the Department of Public Works […]
New discrimination law is tyranny on stilts
Making fun of “flat-Earthers” may be the mainstay of many a joke. Yet, if a new discrimination law is adopted, that could land you in hot water in the Equality Court. You can now “unintentionally” discriminate, among other things, on grounds of someone’s “beliefs”. This new law amends the so-called Promotion of Equality and Prevention […]
The euphemistic terminology of expropriation without compensation
Imagine you are doing people-watching in a convenience store. Someone enters, takes a product from a shelf, and walks out without paying. The owner storms out, shouts at the thief, and calls the police. Clearly, someone just stole something! The next day you are back in the same store. Someone enters, takes a product from […]
Sakeliga presents panel discussion on Expropriation Bill and amendment of Article 25 of the Constitution
Tian Alberts The business organisation Sakeliga held a live panel discussion on its Facebook page on Tuesday, March 30, 2021, during which various focus points around the controversial Expropriation Bill and amendments to Article 25 of the Constitution were discussed. This follows two strong parliamentary submissions by Sakeliga during last week’s public hearings. Several issues […]
Analysis of the Expropriation Bill’s confiscation policy
Background Sakeliga recently submitted comment on the Expropriation Bill of 2020. The bill is controversial, and expropriation has always been contentious. The current proposals, however, deviate from international best practice on expropriation by seeking to introduce confiscation as a regular public policy. This analysis follows on previous Sakeliga submissions on the Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Bill […]
Expropriation as punishment
In addition to the multiple concerning provisions in the new Expropriation Bill published on October 9, 2020, it is clear that government has adopted an entirely new conceptualisation of expropriation. No longer is expropriation regarded as a terrible inconvenience that blameless property owners must be compensated for, but rather as a crude tool of policy, one which […]