SA ranks 69th in list of freest countries

SOUTH AFRICA has been ranked 69th out of the 123 countries in a new study that charts countries according to how free they are, 14 places below Ghana, the highest ranked African country.

The study, Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom, was released yesterday by the Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank, and Germany’s Liberales Institut.

New Zealand leads the index, followed by the Netherlands and Hong Kong. The US is ranked seventh while the UK is ranked 18th.

The three lowest ranked countries are Pakistan, Myanmar and Zimbabwe.

The study looked at a wide range of factors, like murder, assault, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and economic freedom to calculate a combined “human freedom” mark.

According to the study’s authors, it seeks to “improve the objective measurement of human freedom worldwide” by combining personal freedom with economic freedom to calculate a “human freedom” score.

Fred McMahon, one of the authors, explained that the study has a wider scope than other studies charting freedom. “Our intention is to measure the degree to which people are free to enjoy classic civil liberties – freedom of speech, religion, individual economic choice, and association and assembly – in each country surveyed.”

South Africa has a higher personal freedom (7.3) than economic freedom (6.55) score, leading to a combined score of 6.94. This was slightly higher than the average for all countries surveyed (6.9).

Leon Louw, the executive director of the Free Market Foundation in Johannesburg, said the study was important, because “never before have we had such a comprehensive assessment of freedom”.

“A high degree of personal and economic freedom tends to coincide with prosperity,” said Louw.

He

added

that

South Africa’s position on the table was cause for concern, as other African countries like Ghana, Namibia and Botswana were becoming “more free”, while “we are slipping (down the freedom table) on average.”

Louw said institutions such as the Broadcasting Complaints Commission, and the introduction of legislation that bans tobacco advertising and smoking, have decreased the freedom enjoyed by South Africans.

He noted, however, that South Africa was one of the few countries in the world to have legalised gay marriage, adding that the country could increase its freedom by learning from and emulating countries on top of the list.