What freedom means

Temba Nolutshungu, at the Free Market Foundation, writes an eloquent piece about what freedom should mean for South Africans. I’ve long held that replacing one brand of national socialism with another does not constitute freedom, nor does it achieve the non-racial society the liberation movement once dreamed of. It would appear Temba agrees:

If we want our SA nation to have true freedom we must remove racial discrimination from our statute books. Otherwise nothing will have changed except that victim and persecutor will have exchanged roles.

The word “freedom” has unfortunately been interpreted in various ways. In the sense in which most of us understand the word, it means individual liberty. However, to others it means freedom from want, imposing obligations on others to supply whatever is needed. A free society can only exist if we interpret “freedom” to mean individual liberty.

He cites pertinent examples:

What evidence is there that SA is going astray? The signs are to be found in a lack of equality before the law; a perpetuation of the discrimination endured under apartheid. There are arbitrary compulsions and prohibitions that are imposed on some and not on others.

We find young medical graduates being instructed to work in places that are not of their choosing, while other graduates are not. Taxi owners who own roadworthy vehicles, who have not been found guilty of any offence, being instructed to hand them over to the government for destruction. These people are being deprived of legitimate choices to achieve their ends.

Firms are instructed as to whom they may employ, whom their business partners should be, at what prices they may sell their products, and increasingly their choices are being limited. We have mass unemployment because the unemployed have been deprived of freedom of contract; they are not entitled to make any agreement they wish with employers – it is forbidden.

What kind of society are we creating for future generations? Do we not want a warm, generous, affluent and peaceful nation? If we do, we must choose liberty as the most important human right, and all the best characteristics of our people will gain the upper hand.

I wish the voters would recognise - because the socialists in government never will - that state planning of, state control over, and state interference in people’s lives does not build prosperity nor establish liberty. It didn’t work for Stalin, it didn’t work for PW Botha, and it won’t work now. When politicians make promises they can’t keep, that’s a reason to vote them out, not keep them in power in the vain hope that their good intentions will magically become reality.