The FW de Klerk Foundation urges Parliament to act to ensure that public funds are used efficiently, economically, effectively, and transparently. The Foundation is concerned about the repair and maintenance project at Tshwane’s 1 Military Hospital. More than R1 billion has been spent, yet the project remains incomplete. Government is now considering a new facility.
South Africa possesses one of the world’s most progressive constitutions and highly sophisticated policy frameworks. Yet, a catastrophic disconnect exists across every tier of governance: chronic state inaction and regulatory blindness, followed inevitably by frantic, performative, and costly reactive crisis management.
The FW de Klerk Foundation welcomes the Presidency’s response to its research on the financial and constitutional cost of parliamentary disruptions. The Foundation’s analysis shows that disrupted sittings can cost taxpayers thousands of rand per minute while weakening Parliament’s duty to hold the Executive accountable. Following the Presidency’s encouragement, the Foundation will now engage Parliament directly on stronger accountability, consequence management and respect for South Africa’s constitutional institutions.
For millions of South Africans, the Constitution promises open, accountable and responsive government, dignity, equality and access to basic services like water. Yet for many communities, those promise collapses at local government level. Water taps run dry, refuse is not collected, potholes are permanent and corruption goes unpunished.
Three decades after South Africa’s transition to a non-racial democracy, the country’s unresolved land question remains one of its most volatile political and economic fault lines. Recently, calls to abolish private land ownership have resurfaced with renewed vigor. Promoted by political figures such as Mzwanele “Jimmy” Manyi and the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), this populist rhetoric advocates for the elimination of private property in favour of total state ownership or state trusteeship.
South Africa’s local government elections are approaching at a time of real unemployment, service delivery and governance failures, but xenophobic mobilisation is directing public anger at the wrong target. The article argues that anti-immigrant protests undermine constitutional accountability by replacing demands for competent local government with scapegoating, fear and unlawful vigilantism. The FW de Klerk Foundation warns that South Africa’s genuine grievances must be resolved through the rule of law, democratic accountability and constitutional governance – not hostility toward vulnerable minorities.
The FW de Klerk Foundation warns that municipal collapse is not merely a service-delivery failure, but a failure to honour the Constitution’s promise of democratic, accountable and development-oriented local government. With municipal debt to Eskom exceeding R130 billion and governance failures deepening across several municipalities, the Foundation argues that the 2026 Local Government Elections must become a genuine reckoning for elected officials and candidates. The Foundation calls for credible municipal recovery plans, ring-fenced service revenue, merit-based appointments and independent performance data to restore constitutional accountability at local level.
The FW de Klerk Foundation has released new calculations detailing the severe public cost of parliamentary disruptions, revealing that just one hour of disorder in a joint sitting can cost taxpayers nearly R1 million.
When Parliament is disrupted, taxpayers pay not only for lost time, but for weakened oversight and reduced accountability. This article argues that parliamentary disorder carries a measurable public cost, using official remuneration and budget figures to estimate what each wasted minute means in rands. It concludes that robust debate must be protected, but preventable obstruction should carry consequences that reflect the real cost to citizens.
