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 argues that South Africa must pursue meaningful redress for the injustices of apartheid without turning racial classification into a permanent organising principle of public procurement. This article cautions that the Public Procurement Act of 2024 and proposed 2026 regulations risk placing rigid preference mechanisms above fairness, competition, transparency, cost-effectiveness and municipal capacity. The Foundation calls for a more constitutionally disciplined model of procurement that targets real disadvantage, builds supplier capability, fights corruption and advances South Africa towards a genuinely non-racial society.
The FW de Klerk Foundation notes ICASA’s recent statement that, under the current Electronic Communications Act of 2005, full recognition of equity equivalent investment programmes in telecommunications would require legislative amendment. That position, coupled with Minister Solly Malatsi’s stated intention to pursue such amendments, reveals a deeper problem than a single regulatory dispute. It reveals a legal and policy disharmony that South Africa can no longer afford. As the country moves toward the 4 November 2026 local government elections, digital access is no longer peripheral. It bears directly on service delivery, public participation, education, local accountability and economic inclusion.
In honour of Human Rights Day, the FW de Klerk Foundation’s Constitutional Rights Programme team will present the Foundation’s annual Human Rights Report Card which examines the extent to which the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights were practically enjoyed by all South Africans over the past year.
Ismail Joosub outlines what the President’s declaration of Gender-based Violence as a national disaster legally means, as well as the pitfalls if the government doesn’t fulfil its strengthened legal obligation.
On 20 November, Cobus van Deventer and Irene de Bod, from the National Institute of the Deaf, visited the FW de Klerk Foundation’s Office to report back on how the Foundation’s financial support has been utilised for the betterment of deaf South Africans.
The FW de Klerk Foundation, in partnership with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, hosted the Fourth FW de Klerk Memorial Lecture on 11 November 2025.
Watch the 4th FW de Klerk Memorial Lecture.
On 11 November 2025, the FW de Klerk Foundation hosted the 4th FW de Klerk Memorial Lecture, in which Jonathan Granoff was the guest speaker.
