In this article, Jeff Thomas of International Man writes of the warning by Scottish economist Alexander Tytler that all democracies end in dictatorship. Looking at Tytler's Cycle of Freedom, it is difficult not to conclude that SA has squandered much of the liberty gained in the last 20 years and we are moving down the scale to apathy. From there, it is a short hop to bondage before the cycle of freedom fires up again. This will take generations to reverse, Tytler warns us.

Joburg Mayor Herman Mashaba wants to know who is in his city legally and for those whose documentation is not in order to be processed by Home Affairs. And to achieve this he is preparing to take the Department of Home Affairs to court, arguing that the challenge of illegal immigration was a crisis in the city and that the responsibility for “immigration control lies with national government and not local municipality”.

In terms of the new hate crimes bill, calling lawyers "blood-sucking parasites" could land you in jail for three years. This new bill will make South Africa unique in the world by creating 17 different categories of potential victims of insulting language, over and above race, ethnicity, religion and gender. These new categories include culture, belief, occupation and gender identity. Should this bill become law, South Africa will become a frigid, humourless place where every work spoken or written will have to be carefully measured.

SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) is fighting wars on multiple fronts. It attempts to toll the Cape Wineslands route was recently thrown out of the Cape High Court, while indigenous community members in Pondoland are resisting efforts to carve a beautiful new highway through closely-knit communities in the Eastern Cape. Many of the studies on which Sanral relies for motivating the Pondoland route have been debunked by independent studies, but Sanral is determined to press ahead in apparent disregard for the local people and the Constitution, as social activist John Clarke points out in this article.

A recent study of home repossessions puts SA among the worst - if not the worst - in the world. The enthusiasm with which SA banks rush to repossess homes in the event of default is described as "medieval" and cruel. 

The contribution of white South Africans to the fall of apartheid is frequently underplayed, but a recent event hosted by the Free Market Foundation put the record straight. 

Despite what you may have heard in the media over the last few months, race relations in SA are actually quite good, according to a recent survey by the Institute of Race Relations.

While some newspapers refuse to publish anything positive about Orania on the grounds that it might offend some, Leon Louw of the Free Market Foundation went there and found it clean, hospitable and tolerant.

800 years after the signing of the Magna Carta, the fight for individual liberty is far from secure, argues former US assistant treasury secretary, Paul Craig Roberts. Governments everywhere are attempting to peel back the liberties for which humankind has fought since before the time of King John in the 1200s.

It seems the legality of the random Metro police stops on our roads is about to be tested in the courts. Apart from presenting police officers with opportunities for daylight robbery, these roads blocks result in traffic snarl-ups and huge inconvenience to the travelling public.

The SA Human Rights Commission is investigating the eviction of several hundred families from Lwandle in the Western Cape. The commission says it is concerned about the manner of the evictions and the delay in providing alternative shelter.