Category: Rational Perspective

Terence Corrigan takes aim at the voter tendency to reward likeability over capability at the ballot box – “vibe politics”. From Jacob Zuma’s charm masking a decade of state capture to suburbanites who won’t vote DA on purely aesthetic grounds, Corrigan argues voters bear real responsibility for the governance failures they then complain about. His…

Ian Bremmer warns that Vladimir Putin faces his tightest spot in 25 years in power — Russia controls the same 20% of Ukraine it did three years ago, casualties have hit staggering levels, and Ukraine is now striking deep inside Russia itself, even Moscow and Crimea. With growth forecast at just 0.5% for 2026 and…

Martin van Staden takes aim at retired judge Dennis Davis’s newly republished Democracy and Deliberation, which now admits South Africa’s constitutional order is drifting toward authoritarianism. Van Staden’s charge: Davis helped write the playbook. Decades of “transformationist” jurisprudence – treating the Constitution as a tool for social engineering rather than a limit on state power…

This article was first published by The Common Sense Simon Lincoln Reader takes a scalpel to the media coverage of the DA’s latest troubles, accusing journalists Verashni Pillay and Redi Tlhabi of manufacturing scandal from John Steenhuisen’s tell-all interview. His argument: the Resolve Communications “inquiry” calls are overblown, lobbying isn’t illegal, and the comparisons to Bell…

Reputation strategist Solly Moeng doesn’t pull punches on the Steenhuisen-Resolve Communications saga. His argument: this isn’t DA infighting, it’s proof that South Africa’s PR industry has become an unaccountable weapon in factional warfare. When a firm chaired by former DA leader Tony Leon allegedly helps drive campaigns against sitting officials, “we’re just executing the brief”…

Two Cape Town Jewish philanthropists. Comparable ties to Israel. Vastly different treatment from the SA BDS Coalition and Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Philip Krawitz — executive chairman of Cape Union Mart — faces years of protests, death threats, bodyguards, a bulletproof car, and a Western Cape High Court battle. Dianna Yach, chair of the Mauerberger Foundation…

He’s gone viral worldwide — and apparently in Uber cars across South Africa. Jiang Xueqin, better known as Professor Jiang, has built a massive following on his Predictive History channel by making a bewildering world feel suddenly coherent. But historian Peter Swanepoel has watched the lectures, and he’s uneasy. Not because Jiang is unintelligent —…

Operation Vala Umgodi deployed 4,302 troops, made 18,000 arrests, produced zero kingpin prosecutions — and the gold left the country anyway. That is the central argument of Paper 5 in the Gold Papers series by Northbound Processing’s Dr Duarte da Silva, which makes the case for legalising artisanal mining on purely financial grounds. A mercury…

Forensic psychologist and military analyst Dr Joan Swart dissects the increasingly public diplomatic standoff between US Ambassador Leo Brent Bozell III and DIRCO — and finds both sides wanting. Her core argument: social media rewards confrontation, but statecraft requires discretion. DIRCO’s assertion that “non-alignment must not be conflated with neutrality” reflects a coherent doctrine of…

This article was first published by The Common Sense Inequality is not such a bad thing. In fact, it is an inevitable feature of life. People have different talents, capabilities and appetites for work. Why do we celebrate differential outcomes in some domains while lamenting it in others? By David Ansara for The Common Sense Last…

South Africa appears to have avoided the worst-case shock, but the path ahead is narrowing. Beneath the headline growth numbers lies a more fragile reality: weaker investment, mounting cost pressures, and limited room for policy mistakes. As oil markets, global trade routes, and domestic decisions collide, businesses face a new operating environment where resilience matters…

The 2025 Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) finds that Durban recorded the largest single-year efficiency gain of any port in the world between 2024 and 2025. Coega (Ngqura) was also among the top five most improved globally. Port Elizabeth leads all ports in long-run improvement since 2020. Despite the impressive improvements, South Africa’s main ports…

South Africa’s Prevention of Illegal Eviction Act was conceived as a post-apartheid safeguard for the poor. IRR head of policy research Anthea Jeffery argues it has become an economic wrecking ball — deterring fixed investment at a time when South Africa’s rate, at 13.7% of GDP, is roughly half the global average and well below…