This is a unique audience in a special place at a turbulent juncture of history.

The European business community in South Africa straddles different worlds, spanning not only geographies, but languages and cultures too.

As businesspeople, you devote your time and energy to serving others through the magical mechanism of the market. You do so spontaneously and voluntarily, without direction from a central authority.

You pursue profit, you try to avoid losses, you learn, and you iterate. By showing up every day, you add value to the world and contribute in your own small way to human progress.

David Ansara addressing the audience at a European “multi-chamber” networking event in Cape Town (25 June 2026).

This evening, at the beautiful President Hotel, with the vast Atlantic Ocean behind us, I want to discuss the importance of economic freedom. I will show why freedom is the best path to prosperity and why this is relevant for both Europe and South Africa.

Explorers

But first, let us take a brief walk through history.

Portugal has a proud maritime tradition, producing many pioneering explorers.

In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to navigate around the southern tip of Africa. Dias sailed down the West African coastline, and upon reaching Walvis Bay, he veered westward into the Atlantic Ocean, where he caught more favourable winds and avoided the treacherous coast.

Dias’s ship then followed a broad arc eastward and after 30 days in the open ocean entered the Southern Cape in what is today Mossel Bay. After venturing up the east coast for a time, Dias’s crew eventually became restless and urged him to turn back home. He agreed and on the return journey they discovered the Cape of Good Hope.

It is believed that Dias originally named it the Cape of Storms (Cabo das Tormentas ) and that King John II later renamed it the Cape of Good Hope (Cabo da Boa Esperança), symbolising the opening of a sea route from west to east.

Dias paved the way for another Portuguese explorer, Vasco de Gama, who in 1498 completed the first direct ocean voyage between Europe and India, also via the Cape, bypassing Ottoman-controlled land routes. Da Gama’s voyage was an event that changed the trajectory of the world, uniting West with East.

Since the days of these early explorers, Europe and South Africa have been connected through centuries of conflict and conquest, cooperation, trade, settlement, and investment.

The bond between Europe and South Africa is centuries old. But what does the Europe-South Africa relationship consist of today? And what of the future?

I believe Europe and South Africa should rekindle the pioneering spirit of Dias and Da Gama by embracing free-market capitalism, the greatest driver of human progress the world has seen.

I don’t want to just single out the Portuguese tonight. We have many chambers represented here and all can make some claim to advancing freedom in different ways:

The Italians – you gifted the world the Renaissance, which in the 14th century made Europe the centre of the world. Modern banking and accounting practices began in the city states of Venice and Florence. Their power came not only from military might, but from ideas, artistic expression, and scientific experimentation.

The French – you are more known for political freedom and the legacy of the French Revolution represented in your national motto: Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.

However, the term most used to describe free-market economics is a French one: “laissez-faire” (meaning "let do" or "leave alone"). Laissez-faire has its origins in the mid-18th century French thinkers known as the physiocrats. They advocated for free internal and external trade, minimal government intervention, and the idea of a natural economic order. The French liberal school followed them, which was a direct forerunner to the Austrian school of economics that we at the FMF today champion.

What about the so-called Low Countries?

The Dutch have been synonymous with freedom for centuries. By guaranteeing religious liberty and freedom of thought, The Netherlands became a haven for intellectuals and thinkers from all over Europe, including the Renaissance humanist and theologian Erasmus, the Portuguese Enlightenment philosopher Spinoza, and the English liberal political theorist John Locke. You also gave the world the first multinational corporation – the Dutch East India Company, although I should add that this was more of a state-owned enterprise! The natural-law ideas of Hugo Grotius also give South African common law today its flair in favour of freedom.

The Belgians, through commercial centres such as Antwerp, provided a gateway for Europe to engage and trade with the world. Belgium was one of the founding countries of the European Coal and Steel Community, the forerunner to the European Union (EU).

Ireland, for so long mired in poverty, and having endured the Great Famine of 1845 to 1852, underwent an economic revolution between 1995 and 2007, which transformed it from one of the poorest countries in Europe to one of the wealthiest. A true Celtic Tiger.

The experience of each of these countries reveals what made Europe prosper in the first place.

While natural resources, geography, and imperial conquest all played a role, these factors were less important than the spirit of free enterprise, limitations on the power of government, the prevalence of the rule of law, as well as free trade and the free movement of people.

Another reason why Europe prospered: competition between nation states. Except for Charlemagne in the 8th century, all those who have attempted to rule Europe from the centre have failed.

Europe in the 20th century was characterised by early prosperity, followed by the unimaginable horrors of the First and Second World Wars. While Europe successfully freed itself from the jaws of fascism, for five decades it was haunted by the spectre of communism in the East.

It may not have been the “end of history” that Francis Fukuyama predicted, but the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is one of the great geopolitical events of our lifetimes. It represents the triumph of the human spirit over the forces of command and control.

We would do well here in South Africa to look to the experience of former Communist Bloc countries such as Poland, which today is wealthier in GDP per capita terms than both the United Kingdom and Japan.

Why Economic Freedom Matters

Every year, the FMF publishes the Economic Freedom of the World: 2025 Annual Report (EFW) together with the Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank.

The EFW measures economic freedom in 165 countries around the world, aggregating 45 data points across five key areas. These are:

• •Size of government;
• •Regulation;
• •Legal system and property rights;
• •Freedom to trade internationally; and
• •Sound money.

The EFW reveals strong correlations between economic freedom, prosperity, and human flourishing. For example:

• •Free countries are richer: GDP per capita in free countries is approximately $55 000, whereas people in unfree countries earn only $7 000 on average;
• •It is better to be poor in a free country than poor in an unfree country: the poorest 10% of the population in free countries earn approximately $7 500 per annum, while in the least free countries the poorest 10% earn less than $1 000 per annum;
• •Life expectancy is 79 years in the freest countries compared to 62 years in the least free; and
• •Children in free countries are 2.5 times less likely to work than children in unfree countries.

Of the 165 countries with EFW scores, South Africa’s ranking has remained stagnant at 83rd place for the second year in a row, with a score of 6.61 out of 10.

This is South Africa’s lowest level since 1994 and a long way off from its highest ranking of 47th in 2000.

How did the European countries gathered here today perform in the rankings? I shall list them from the least free to the freest.

• •Italy – 46th out of 165 countries
• •France – 44th
• •Belgium – 31st
• •Portugal – 23rd
• •Netherlands – 10th
• •Ireland – 6th

This offers a useful framework for understanding how freedom generates prosperity and, I hope, introduces some friendly rivalry between the countries gathered here today. We will have to wait until about September to see how the rankings change this year.

FMF Policy Solutions

I will offer some high-level solutions from the perspective of the FMF:

South Africa’s sub-par economic growth is mostly a function of the ever-expanding size and scope of government, which is funded by debt and high taxation.

South Africa’s national debt as a proportion of GDP has stabilised at about 78%. This is high by domestic standards but is close to the average of the 27 countries of the EU, which stands at about 81%.

Tax Freedom Day (TFD) is a campaign that the FMF has run since the 1990s. It represents the day you “stop” paying tax, or more specifically, stop working for the government and start working for yourself and your family.

This year, Tax Freedom Day fell on 22 May, which is 142 days into the year.

Back in 1994, Tax Freedom Day fell on 12 April, meaning the total tax burden has risen from 30% to 38% of GDP in over three decades.

The FMF’s solution, as articulated in a paper for its Liberty First policy series: reduce the government down to its bare essentials by cutting the public sector wage bill. Currently, public sector employment comprises nearly 18% of the total workforce in South Africa.

To make the state leaner and more efficient, we recommend consolidating many of the central government’s 32 ministries, to a mere ten portfolios. If this sounds radical, consider that some countries with larger economies than South Africa’s also have smaller cabinets, like Germany, with its 17 ministries, and Ireland, which has only 15 Cabinet seats.

We also propose placing a strict, fixed limitation on the number of deputy ministers, retaining only those absolutely constitutionally or practically necessary.

There are many ways in which heavy-handed government regulation stifles free enterprise in South Africa. But the most consequential impact is shown in the country's labour market.

Official unemployment sits at 32% (with the youth unemployment level at about 46%). Put another way, out of a total economically active population of 25 million people, only 17 million are employed and a whopping eight million are unemployed.

While there are many reasons for South Africa’s high unemployment, the primary culprit is the labour regulatory framework.

Legislation like the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Labour Relations Act, the Employment Equity Act, and the National Minimum Wage Act protect existing workers at the expense of the unemployed.

To fix South Africa’s high unemployment, the FMF has long proposed a Job Seeker's Exemption Certificate (JSEC), which would enable first-time jobseekers to voluntarily exempt themselves from South Africa’s restrictive labour laws.

The JSEC would be a temporary certificate exempting first-time job seekers from all labour laws for 24 months, thus improving their competitiveness in the job market. The beauty of the JSEC is that it would not require withdrawing any existing legislation, which would be a long and protracted battle.

Avoiding Managed Decline

Europe and South Africa differ in fundamental ways. However, both now face a similar threat: the scourge of managed decline.

Managed decline is an attitude.

It is a deeply pessimistic posture that accepts that our best days are behind us. It is a belief that wealth is finite and needs to be redistributed rather than grown.

Managed decline focuses on mitigating costs rather than realising benefits. It is zero-sum rather than a positive-sum mindset. If some are winning, then others must be losing.

Managed decline abhors disruption and seeks to protect the status quo for fear of the unknown.

It is said that “America innovates, China replicates, and Europe regulates.”

This pithy phrase reveals a lot. Regulation is often seen as a tool to address problems associated with “market failure”. While consistent application of rule of law is important, regulation for its own sake stifles innovation and shrinks opportunity.

Regulation implies permission to operate by a state authority, but true innovation is disruptive and permissionless. You cannot regulate your way to prosperity.

But managed decline is a choice; it is not our fate.

There is a different approach: one that recognises our limitless human potential and harnesses our ability to innovate and to create.

For those bold enough to choose freedom, there are many rewards: opportunity, prosperity, and peace.

Standing Up for Freedom 

Your rights and freedoms are inalienable and intrinsic to you as a human being. They are not something to be granted or withheld by any government.

However, the policies implemented by governments often threaten our liberties. Freedom needs to be cherished and defended, lest it be taken away.

Policy needn’t be that complicated. All you need to do to unlock the vast unrealised potential that exists in South Africa is to follow the principles of economic freedom.

The challenge – as always– is how to navigate the politics. That is why mere policy analysis is not enough. You need to create the pressure for reform to happen and that is fundamentally a political exercise.

Pushing back against over-regulation is therefore critical for preserving economic freedom.

A notable example of this is the Business Licensing Bill, published in September 2025, which sought to introduce licensing requirements for all firms in South Africa, granting high degrees of discretionary power to the minister to grant and withhold licenses. After extensive lobbying by the FMF and other civil society groups, the Bill was withdrawn in May of this year.

Sometimes, however, submissions to Parliament are ignored and government presses ahead with bad laws.

It is for this reason that the FMF will be joining litigation against the Expropriation Act, through our Rule of Law Project. We will be back here in Cape Town in August to appear as friends of the court.

While we fight to protect private property in the courts, the FMF also works to extend private property rights to low-income South Africans through its Khaya Lam project. We are proud to boast that Khaya Lam has successfully facilitated the transfer of more than 23 000 title deeds from municipalities to homeowners since 2010.

This demonstrates our commitment to making private ownership a reality for all South Africans.

I understand that most businesses want to avoid conflict with the government. However, I would urge the business community to be peaceful but not harmless.

In a speech I gave to the 1926 Club in Johannesburg in July 2023, I urged business to adopt a different posture in its dealings with government. I said: “Business in South Africa needs to recognise its significant bargaining power and adopt a different strategy in its dealings with government. Instead of the consensus-seeking approach, business must assume a mindset of negotiating with the government. This, I believe, is a subtle but significant mental shift which will ultimately yield better results for business itself, and in the long run achieve a more healthy and sustainable relationship between business and government.”

As businesspeople operating in South Africa, I would ask every individual here to reflect on what freedom means to you. Whether you are here for a brief period, or are committed for the long term, your fate is tied to South Africa’s success.

And for South Africa to succeed, it must do what every country must do: embrace freedom.

Ansara is CEO of the Free Market Foundation.