Or at least that is what one guy recently called him in a YouTube comment! When people debate economic policy—whether in Parliament, on social media, or around the braai—we often hear labels like left, right, liberal, socialist, or pro-market. But what do these labels actually mean in practice? And how do they apply to South Africa’s political and media landscape? It is the stuff of the National Dialogue.

So I asked GPT 4.o a few questions and we came up with the following typology. In this post, I offer a practical typology of economic policy ideas, not through the lens of academic schools of thought (like Keynesianism or Monetarism), but in the way these ideas appear in public discourse. From libertarianism to democratic socialism, these positions reflect different answers to one core question: what should the state’s role be in managing the economy?

Let’s walk through seven broad positions that often show up in media and policy discussions:

1. Far Left (Democratic Socialist / Marxist)

• Emphasises public ownership of key industries, radical redistribution, and democratic control of the economy.
• Believes capitalism inherently leads to exploitation and inequality.
• South African examples: EFF, SACP-aligned thinkers, Ronnie Kasrils

2. Left / Progressive

• Supports strong labour rights, state-led development, and redistributive social policies.
• Believes markets must be actively shaped to deliver justice.
• Examples: COSATU, left factions of the ANC, Duma Gqubule

3. Centre-Left / Social Liberal

• Believes in a mixed economy—markets with a strong social safety net and active state support for equity.
• Supports targeted redistribution and investment in public services.
• Examples: Centrist ANC figures, National Planning Commission, Tito Mboweni (at times)

4. Centrist / Liberal

• Trusts markets to generate wealth, but supports regulation and modest redistribution to correct failures.
• Focus on education, entrepreneurship, and fiscal stability.
• Examples: Moderate wing of the DA, Michael Sachs, Haroon Bhorat

5. Centre-Right / Classical Liberal

• Advocates for minimal state interference, low taxes, and market-led development.
• Focus on business confidence, property rights, and deregulation.
• Examples: DA right wing, Leon Louw, Frans Cronje

6. Right / New Right

• Combines pro-business policies with moral conservatism or nationalism.
• Often skeptical of welfare expansion, foreign influence, or international institutions.
• Examples: ActionSA, Sakeliga, Ivo Vegter

7. Far Right (Libertarian)

• Examples: Some Cape Independence advocates, Free Market Foundation (radical wing)
• Calls for radical shrinking of the state—privatise everything, abolish welfare, deregulate completely.
• Views markets as the best way to organise nearly all aspects of life.

Understanding the spectrum of economic policy ideas helps us:

• Make sense of debates about taxes, welfare, growth, and inequality.
• Decode political platforms beyond their slogans.
• Recognise when ideas shift—like when a centrist party starts talking industrial policy, or a pro-market party backs minimum wage increases.

It also shows how economic debates are not just technical, but ideological: they’re about what kind of society we want to live in, and who should have power in shaping it.

South Africa’s policy debates are shaped by deep social and historical fault lines—from apartheid-era dispossession to post-1994 attempts at redress, from elite capture to popular unrest. So it’s no surprise that economic ideas stretch across a wide spectrum.

But whether you lean left, right, or somewhere in between, we all benefit from understanding the terrain better.

Would you place any voices differently on the spectrum? Drop your thoughts in the comments. And no, Dawie is not a leftist liberal.