Tim Cohen's new book, Leon Louw: A Legacy of Solutions, sheds light on the life and ideas of the Free Market Foundation founder. It highlights Louw's transition from communism to free-market advocacy and his contributions to South Africa's anti-apartheid efforts and constitution. The biography emphasizes Louw's policy proposals on issues like roadblocks, land ownership, and personal freedoms.
Leon Louw founded the Free Market Foundation in 1973 and led it for five decades until an acrimonious departure. Before embracing free markets, Louw had been a communist, a change prompted by witnessing the police slaying of a Johannesburg street trader in the 1960s. This experience turned him into a crusader for street traders' rights and broader economic freedoms.
The book details Louw's overlooked role in the anti-apartheid movement and his contributions to crafting South Africa's progressive Constitution. Cohen portrays Louw as a figure whose ideas spanned the political spectrum, influencing policy without partisan alignment during his FMF tenure.
One key proposal is the abolition of police roadblocks in South Africa. Louw argues they are unlawful under the Traffic Act, costly, bribery-prone, and create road hazards by delaying drivers who then speed to compensate. As Cohen writes, “These (road blocks), Louw argues, are a theatre of futility – unlawful under the Traffic Act, costly, bribery-prone, and a road hazard in themselves. They delay drivers, who then speed recklessly to make up lost time.” Louw has been arrested at such blocks for refusing to show his license without a warrant.
On land issues, Louw challenges the narrative of no change since 1994, noting conditions are two to 27 times better. He advocates for title deeds to unlock 'dead capital' in former homelands, an idea with cross-spectrum support. His Freedom Foundation is conducting a comprehensive survey of South African wealth, including land ownership.
Louw holds libertarian views on tobacco and alcohol, opposing bans as infringements on personal freedom. During a dinner with Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, who proposed restricting smoking, sugar, salt, and alcohol, Louw retorted that smoking offers benefits like pleasure and relaxation. “To declare that millions of people derive ‘no benefit’ from something they plainly enjoy is not science but puritanism,” Cohen quotes him saying.
The book, published as a Maverick 451 title, presents Louw's global influence, from Malta to post-communist Siberia, and questions assumptions about inequality and unemployment in South Africa.