10Apr 2026 by Nicholas Woode-Smith
The New Axis: South Africa?

The New Axis: South Africa?

Opinion
Excerpt For the ANC the Cold War never really ended. And while it maintains an air of respectability when begging for Western investment and foreign aid, in truth it sides with rogue states, dictators and war criminals to not just push an anti-Western agenda, but also to receive bribes. The ANC has ensured that South Africa’s foreign policy is not just irrationally in favour of the New Axis but also uses it as a fundraising tool. Since 1994, the ANC has effectively leased its foreign policy to the highest bidder. These bribes have been used to fill ANC party and official’s coffers, while providing diplomatic cover and legitimacy to dictators like Libya’s Gaddafi, Nigeria’s Abacha and Indonesia’s Suharto, all of which were engaging in brutal violence against civilians. The ANC…
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02Apr 2026 by Martin van Staden
Defending Roman-Dutch Law Against Ghana’s Bizarre UN Slavery Resolution

Defending Roman-Dutch Law Against Ghana’s Bizarre UN Slavery Resolution

Daily Friend, Opinion
Excerpt Condemning European complicity is fair, because they were complicit. But it cannot be done non-reciprocally while ignoring the broader context. Slavery has been practiced across civilisations for millennia, including in parts of Africa and the Middle East into modern times. Estimates from the Global Slavery Index indicate millions still live in forms of modern slavery today – forced labour, forced marriage, and descent-based servitude – particularly in parts of Africa and Arab states. The condemned West is almost entirely free of slavery, while the condemning accusers still practice it at intolerable rates. What distinguishes the West is not the original sin of participation (shared by many societies), but the fact that Western civilisation, drawing on the initial Roman note on slavery’s tension with natural freedom, became the first civilisation to abolish it systematically…
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05May 2023 by Martin van Staden
A Federation for Southern Africa?

A Federation for Southern Africa?

Isonomia Quarterly, Paper
Abstract This paper evaluates whether uniting the states of Southern Africa into a federal union would better protect individuals’ freedom of action and private property - the core purpose of government - than the prevailing system of separate sovereign nation-states. Martin van Staden argues that true federalism, unlike mere sovereignty or unitary centralisation, diffuses power by creating multiple constitutionally entrenched centres of authority that check and balance one another, spreading risk and making total elite capture far more difficult. Separate sovereign states do not constrain one another’s abuses; each remains a centralised point of failure for its subjects. In contrast, federal unification brings more people under a single constitutional framework of internal checks, advancing genuine decentralisation. Southern Africa’s history - including South Africa’s federalist tradition, the failed Central African Federation,…
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