The th!nc Foundation

Foreign nationals are already embedded in South Africa’s labour market, township commerce and urban life. Treating migration as a political slogan rather than an economic fact is not only a bad policy approach but bad economics. South Africa’s migration debate has become repetitive and unproductive. Public anger flares, foreign nationals are cast as the face of economic decline, and the same arguments return. Yet the underlying reality does not change. Migrants are already part of the labour market, township commerce, rental markets and consumer economy. The real issue is not whether migration exists, but whether South Africa is prepared to deal honestly with its economic consequences.   Businesses should pay closer attention. Recent estimates by Statistics South Africa place the immigrant population at more than three million. That is a material demographic fact with implications for labour supply, consumption patterns, market segmentation and urban demand. Any boardroom or ...

Power in sport, as in politics or business, is often misread through the theatre of reputation. A club can look invincible long after small signs of decline have already appeared. That is because dominance creates its own mythology: it teaches supporters, rivals and sometimes even decision-makers to confuse prestige with performance. Yet serious analysis begins where myth ends. The real question is never who looks strongest, but who is still meeting the underlying tests of sustained excellence. This is the problem with hegemonic institutions. They tend to overinvest in yesterday’s glory and under-read tomorrow’s threat. By the time challengers become visible, they have often already improved their systems, sharpened their execution and narrowed the gap. The complacent giant still speaks the language of inheritance, while the challenger speaks the language of present performance. In competitive environments, that distinction matters. Historical advantage buys time, but it does not buy...

In the absence of definitions, it becomes easy for society to wall itself off from the reality of what is happening. The appointment of Roelf Meyer as US Ambassador has evoked political emotions across the left-right spectrum. In the resultant discourse, one fundamental question has not been addressed: 'What is the meaning of the Roelf Meyer appointment? Roelf Meyer, especially when he clubs or collaborates with Cyril Ramaphosa, represents a part catalyst to the possible resolution of what looks impossible to an ordinary political mind. As South Africa's ability to attract legitimacy for its policies from within the USA, especially the Make America Great Again movement, as proxied by the Trump Administration, wanes, South Africa's options to rescue the situation require the tenacity that took us through the troubled nineties.    For RSA, as a nation, to be a well-functioning society, this will depend on relationships of trust and reciprocity, in which all its people s...

Published in the Sunday Times 12th April 2026 Thirty years after South Africa’s democratic transition, the paradox of being a voter has sharpened. Citizens continue to love their country deeply, yet their trust in those who govern has eroded. Voting, once an uncomplicated expression of loyalty to the liberation movement, has become a difficult balancing act between patriotism, identity, and political dissatisfaction. With turnout now below half of eligible voters, many South Africans no longer believe elections will improve their lived realities.  Patriotism in South Africa has always been a layered construct. Without national conscription or other compulsory civic duties, it has drawn from cultural identity, political affiliation, and personal experience of the state. For the African majority, and for the last 30 years, supporting the party of liberation has been widely treated as synonymous with loving the country. But the political shifts that began accelerating in 2016 create...

South Africa might officially be a country without an ideological left.  Our left left the left leftless. We are now left with a left that is left as a left of the left we knew as the left. This means the left is unoccupied.  Notwithstanding, the right is still not the center... . The center believes it is the left because the left left.  Asked what is the left by Nyami Booi, the prudent answer could only be  It left...and thus might not meet the criteria of answering the what question.  It is now the essence of its absence in our movement that might characterise its presence.

The vigorous lobbying for Patrice Motsepe to raise his hand and refuse to obey Mbalula's "Ntate Motsepe dula fase" call might not be beneficial for South Africa. There was a time when the ANC released several of its leaders to join the private sector. This was driven by a need to extend its influence within the economic establishment. Among its leading figures who made it into the C-Suite and ultimately private capital decision centres, Patrice Motsepe stands out as a proud, loyal, and disciplined member of the ANC.  As part of a post-1996 adopted constitutional democracy business collective, the group of black millionaires and billionaires who have earned their reputation ethically, such as Patrice Motsepe, carved for themselves, and hopefully the nation, strategic roles that are shaping history and posterity. Besides being the voice within the political and social establishment firmly controlled by the ANC-as-liberation movement, these business leaders are a vital voi...