Talk about freedom | Lex Libertas

Talk about freedom

Launch of Lex Libertas

15 May 2025

Speech by Ernst Roets

History doesn’t roar, it whispers

In December 1989, in the Romanian city of Timișoara, a Reformed Church pastor named Tőkés László stood at a crossroads. For months, he had been harassed by the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu — not for any crime, but for speaking the truth: condemning oppression, preaching the gospel, defending the faith, and calling on people to stand for freedom. For doing these things, he was accused of treason, and those in power decided to silence him once and for all.

When they came to evict him from his church residence, members of his congregation — ordinary people, many elderly — formed a human chain outside his door. Word spread. Romanians and Hungarians alike joined the vigil, armed not with weapons, but with courage.

As the crowd grew, government officials demanded that Tőkés calm them. He was warned: disperse the protest, or violence would follow. He walked to the window, looked out at the people gathered to defend him — and instead of urging them to leave, he encouraged them to stand firm. To remain, peacefully but defiantly, on the side of freedom.

That single moment — a pastor at a window, speaking calmly to a crowd — became the spark of a revolution. The crowd was able to protect him, and within hours, protests spread. Within days, Ceaușescu’s regime collapsed. The world as they knew it has changed, even though it would’ve been impossible to predict several months before.

No one there could have known what was beginning. It did not look like the birth of a freedom movement. It looked like a pastor under house arrest, and a few dozen townspeople holding candles in the cold, uncertain about their future.

But this is how history often turns: quietly, modestly, with people who seem too small to make a difference — until they do.

In fact, looking back at major historical events, it’s clear that often, history doesn’t roar, it whispers. But more than that… Even the quietest whisper, when anchored in truth and courage, can silence the loudest of lies.

Afrikaner refugees

This week has been a historic week. Just a few months ago, the Afrikaner people were a largely forgotten people — villains of world history, outcasts from the Western world.

Today, the President of the United States speaks of the greatness of the Afrikaner people. Today, we are welcomed — with open arms — as refugees in the United States.

But this is a deeply bittersweet moment. The word refugee — vlugteling — carries an ominous weight. Who takes pride in fleeing? Who wants to be remembered as someone who ran?

But also — at what point does a people decide that refugee is the right word? Fugitive... escapee... asylum seeker... runaway.

At what point do we choose the white flag over the trench? When does resistance give way to retreat?

Many have left South Africa over the years. And there are many reasons one might do so — many valid reasons.

There are people in this country who have experienced trauma so deep, so unspeakable, that words cannot begin to capture it.

There are those who are pushed out because of the colour of their skin — willing, able, and qualified to work, yet excluded by a regime built on open discrimination.

And there are young people — full of promise, full of wonder — eager to see the world and explore what lies beyond the horizon.

So, by definition, there is nothing shameful about a person or a family deciding to leave.

But — there is something profoundly wrong when a people… a community… a nation… decides that it has given up. When an entire community says, Freedom is no longer worth the fight.

If our people leave this country and become ambassadors for our cause — if they remember where they come from, if they speak of this beautiful land, if they take pride in their heritage, keep visiting, raise awareness, pressure foreign leaders, and teach their children to love their roots — then their leaving does not weaken us.

It strengthens us.

But if they dissolve… if they assimilate… if they forget where they came from… then yes — it wounds us.

We are left weaker by every person who gives up the cause. But we are made stronger by every one who decides — wherever they are — to take up the banner of freedom.

We are not free

South Africa is not a free country.

The communities of South Africa are not free.

The citizens of this country are not free.

To say that we in South Africa are not free borders on heresy — precisely because the similarly irrefutable but deceptive conclusions that we are not only free, but that our freedom is a perfect freedom to be emulated by the rest of the world, have been so deeply engraved in our moral frame of reference over decades.

In 1990, when negotiations for a new South Africa began, the eyes of the whole world were fixed on this country.

“How will you know if South Africa is on the right track?”, President FW de Klerk was asked.

The answer, he explained, would be found in the violent crime statistics.

If violent crime is increasing, we are on the wrong track.

If it is decreasing, people will know that we have done the right thing.

In 1993, when De Klerk and Nelson Mandela received Nobel Peace Prizes, it was said that South Africa had in the past walked the path of chaos, violence and disorder, but that the way had been paved for a new South Africa — a miracle that would be characterized by peace, prosperity, harmony and accountable government.

The road was paved for a new South Africa, they said… a miracle that would be characterised by peace, prosperity, harmony and accountable government.

Yet, more than 600,000 people have been murdered since then. Can we really say this is a country of peace?
With unemployment above 30%, and youth unemployment near 60%, can we really say this is a country of prosperity?
When the president tells the nation that a small ethnic minority is to blame for every problem — when mainstream politicians speak openly of extermination of ethnic minorities, when our highest court declares that the chant “Kill the Boer” is legally permissible, and when the media rushes to defend the mob rather than the victim — can we say this is a country of harmony?
And when corruption is no longer scandal but routine… When public institutions collapse, municipalities rot, billions vanish, and senior politicians enjoy impunity year after year… Can we really call this a government that is accountable?

If this is your definition of freedom, then either you’ve been brainwashed into believing a lie… Or you’ve never truly tasted freedom.

And so, let us say it clearly:

We are not free ;

**We must speak about freedom ; **

An important spiritual task

In 1951, the renowned historian Arnold Toynbee was asked to comment on the Afrikaner people and the situation in South Africa. These were his words:

"My personal feeling is that the Afrikaner nation is faced with an extremely difficult and at the same time extremely important spiritual task—a task that it will have to undertake without having the option to refuse. It seems to me that in South Africa you are already dealing with a situation that the rest of the world will soon share, due to the 'abolition of distance' brought about by the advance of Western technology... There will never again be a place in the world where different factions of mankind can withdraw into isolation from one another... Now, in South Africa, the misfortune of history has already placed the native, coloured, and white people of the country early into this difficult situation. History—or God—has given you the honourable task of being the spiritual pioneers in attempting to find a solution to a spiritual problem which the rest of the human race will soon also face."

Toynbee’s words are more relevant today than ever before. We have said for some time that the rest of the world — especially the Western world — should not view South Africa as a place that is lagging behind, but rather as a place that is ahead of the curve.

South Africa is ahead because we are already grappling with the very problems the rest of the world is only beginning to face. But more importantly, South Africa is ahead because the task of finding solutions to these problems rests on our shoulders — and those solutions may well prove valuable to the rest of the world.

In this search, we are not in the rearguard. We are the pioneers!

That is why, as a community — as a collective — we do not have the option of retreat. Because to fail South Africa is to fail the world. But to find a solution for South Africa is to discover a solution that could be of immense value to the rest of the world.

Those of us who are Westerners are part of the last Western outpost on the African continent. We are standing on the civilizational frontier. And as a Christian and a Calvinist — like László Tőkés — I believe we are not here by accident. I believe we have been called to be here. A responsibility has been placed upon us — one we dare not refuse.

Because we are the champions of freedom. We are the ones who love this country — the land, the peoples, and the communities — deeply. We want to see the good and the beautiful preserved, and the evil extinguished.

We love this country, and we love this continent. And we want everyone who lives here to thrive — not just for our own sake, but for the sake of all the communities who share this land, in mutual respect and cooperation.

And as a result of this love, we need to recognise a fundamental truth:

Love of country is not the same as love for the government.

Loyalty to the country is not the same as loyalty to the political system.

In fact, there are moments in history when love of country requires us to stand against the government — \

when patriotism demands civil disobedience,
when true loyalty demands that we speak out, call for reform, and work for a better system.

We are on the side of South Africa — the land and its peoples — and that is precisely why we must take a stand against what is happening in this country.

That is why we must fight destructive policies and ideas.
That is why we must garner support — at home and abroad.
That is why those who live outside the country must also rise to the occasion.

And that is why we must now say the quiet part out loud:

The political system of 1994 has failed.

The Constitution — however noble it might appear on the surface — has, as Professor Koos Malan has pointed out, become a silent spectator to its own irrelevance.

We are on the side of the custodians, the preservers, the critical thinkers in the true sense of the word, those who see and appreciate the good and the beautiful in the past, and who want to build on it for a better future. We are on the side of gratitude, of civilization, of communities… of freedom.

And our fight is not always against flesh and blood. Our fight is against destruction, against envy, against a deep-rooted hatred for everything old and the blind faith in a utopian future that will take root in the ash heap when everything is finally demolished, against utopian ideologies, against ingratitude, against corruption, against the oppressors of freedom.

Therefore I say again: Talk about freedom.

But we are not alone in facing this mountain.

Our friends in the rest of the world are also confronted with these kinds of crises. Every situation and every crisis is unique, but the underlying struggle is the same.

We are on the side of the custodians — the preservers — the critical thinkers in the truest sense of the word; those who see and appreciate the good and the beautiful in the past, and who want to build on it for a better future.

We are on the side of gratitude, of civilization, of communities — of freedom.

And our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

Our struggle is against destruction, against envy, against a deep-rooted hatred for everything old, against the blind faith in a utopian future that will take root in the ash heap, when everything is finally demolished.

Our struggle is against utopian ideologies, against ingratitude, against corruption, against the oppressors of freedom.

Therefore, I say again:

Talk about freedom.

Lex Libertas

This is why Lex Libertas was formed.

On the 7th of March 2025, we announced this initiative in a preliminary form under the name The Pioneer Initiative.

Today, that initiative becomes Lex Libertas — and that is the name by which we shall henceforth be known.

In these past months, we have received thousands upon thousands of messages of support — from within South Africa and abroad.

Our contributors, many of whom are here tonight, have been phenomenal.

Within just one day after our first contributors’ meeting — where I explained that we needed to choose a name — we had already received more than 50 name suggestions, many of them excellent.

Eventually, we narrowed it down to a shortlist of over two hundred names.

But the support didn’t stop there.

I personally received and responded to thousands of emails — from people saying:
*“I don’t just want to contribute. I want to get involved.” \

“I want to step out of my house and do something real — host an event, start a local branch, take action.”

I’ve also received thousands of pages of research papers, proposals, and strategic suggestions on freedom, self-governance, and institutional design.

And I want to say clearly to our contributors tonight: I have read every page.

Nigel Naylor shared some brilliant insights with us — including a paper by John Kotter of the Harvard Business School.

Kotter writes about strategies for change and the difference between working with a plan and working with an agenda.

The argument is this: while having a plan is important, plans tend to be static.
An agenda, on the other hand, enables a person or organisation to navigate the currents of changing and unpredictable circumstances.

A clear agenda helps us plant a flag at our destination — to know where we are going — while remaining flexible enough to adjust course along the way.

Or, as Edmund Burke put it: To shift the cannons from one side of the ship to the other when circumstances demand it — while still keeping the ship on course.

Hector Odendaal wrote to us and said that we must remember that the most important debates are not won on X or YouTube in the first place, but around the braai fire, or in the car with a friend or colleague.

That is why it is important for us not only to participate in debates in public, but to strengthen our own people’s foundations — to equip our own people with arguments, so that they can also speak about freedom with boldness and self-confidence, right where they find themselves.

Because, Hector said, there are people who have been thinking about freedom for a long time, but there are also people who are only now realizing that they are not free.

Our institution therefore has a task to get people on the same wavelength. Because in this way, he explains, we can plant the flag further — we can all take position X together, because we have already discussed positions A, B and C and reached a conclusion.

We wondered about the name for a long time, and had many conversations.

We strongly considered choosing an Afrikaans name — one that says something about our roots, our place, and our ancestry. We also strongly considered choosing an English name, so that our friends abroad who support our cause can pronounce and understand it easily.

We chose the name Lex Libertas — Latin for “Law” and “Freedom” — because it captures the heart of what we stand for.

In the classical tradition, lex refers not merely to rules imposed from above, but to the enduring principles of justice and order by which a people govern themselves.

Libertas is not simply the absence of constraint, but the presence of meaningful self-government — the kind of freedom that is rooted in responsibility, community, and tradition.

Together, these two words reflect our belief that true freedom can only be sustained within a viable constitutional framework — and that such a framework only has legitimacy when it protects the freedom of real communities.

Because the **individual **can never truly be free if his community is not free.
And a community can never truly be free if the individuals who form it are not free.

Lex Libertas expresses both our vision and our mission.
It affirms that the path to a better political order does not lie in destructive revolution, but in institutional, systemic reform — in working toward a **constitutional dispensation **in which the diverse communities of South Africa can govern themselves freely, justly, and peacefully.

The name is rooted in our Western tradition — a reminder that we do not need to invent new ideologies, but to restore and apply enduring truths, tested by history and experience, to our unique context. That we take seriously the calling placed upon us, as Arnold Toynbee pointed out decades ago.

Our logo combines a compass pointing south and a torch carrying a flame.

The torch symbolises the tradition handed down to us by those who were here before us — and the leadership required to find a path, even when the tides are turbulent and the skies darken.

The flame represents our pursuit of freedom — our mission to bring light into darkness, to shine the light of liberty on a path that can lead to a more sustainable future.

The compass symbolises our steadfastness, and our commitment to our destination.

And through the torch that brings light, the compass points South — because we seek to achieve these things here, on the southern tip of the African continent.

Our values are our fortress

Our actions must be value-oriented, because only through a clearly defined value system can the seeds we sow today take root in good soil. Then our fortress can ultimately be built on the rock like that of the biblical wise man.

First, on veritas (truth)

The recognition of truth, the search for it, and the construction of solutions that are based on facts and not fiction.
On excelsior (excellence):

A vision that looks forward, with a striving for perfection, while constantly looking back with the knowledge that everything we do can be improved. We live and work with the mindset that we can always refine, sharpen and improve ourselves.
On societas (community):

The realization that people naturally organize themselves into communities. That the modern war on communities is an ideological error. And that any attempt to deny or suppress community dynamics is doomed to failure.
On traditio (tradition):

The realization that we are shaped by tradition; that tradition is a set of solutions for which we have already forgotten the problems; that our history is not a burden but a treasure trove of wisdom; and that we can draw from the past without returning to the past.
On integritas (integrity):

The knowledge that integrity is the cornerstone of leadership; that our yes is yes, and our no is no; that we do what we say and say what we do; and that our actions are connected to a value system and a purpose.
On natura (naturalness):

The realization that the struggle of our time is a struggle between the natural and the artificial; that natural identities and solutions cannot be dominated by artificial constructions; and that the path to peace and prosperity runs through the natural order — not through ideological experimentation.
On gratia (gratitude):

The recognition that all we are and all we have is grace. That the world, nature, humanity, our traditions, languages, talents and abilities are gifts. And that we honor these gifts by carrying the treasure of our ancestors safely through the crowd.

Like Cicero, we can declare that we are grateful for all the things we receive from our community, but that we are also grateful for all the things we can do for our community.

We function in an ecosystem

Yet we do not function alone.

We are part of an ecosystem — a network of dozens of organizations that are each already doing excellent work in their respective fields.

There is the Solidarity Movement, with organizations such as Solidarity, AfriForum, Helping Hand, the FAK and Akademia — each of which is already making remarkable contributions, and deserves even more support.

There are also organizations such as Sakeliga, the Free Market Foundation, the IRR, and various digital platforms that are breaking open doors in creative ways — and whose work we fully endorse and want to strengthen.

We do not want to duplicate this work.

We do not want to compete with it.

We are going to complement it.

We are called upon

Even though there is much to worry about here in South Africa, there is something exciting about the times we live in. There is a saying that good times create weak men, weak men create bad times, bad times create strong men, and strong men create good times. If this is true, then it is safe to say that we do not live in good times and thus that it is not our destiny to create bad times. Instead, we are called upon to be strong men and women, to overcome the crises of our time and to create a better future for our descendants.

Even though there is much to worry about in South Africa, there is also something deeply exciting about the times we live in.

There is a saying:

Good times create weak men. Weak men create bad times. Bad times create strong men. And strong men create good times.

If that is true, then it is clear: **We do not live in good times. **Which means it is not our destiny to create bad times.

**It is our calling to be strong. **To overcome the crises of our time. And to build a better future for our descendants.

We are but rafts on the rivers of history. And these waters have not been calm. But we are not powerless, since we have the ability to steer within the waters we find ourselves.

We are now entering the rapids — the turbulence that many of us foresaw. We knew this was coming. And now it is our task to navigate these waters.

How we respond today will plant the seeds by which we will one day be judged — by our children and their children.

We cannot predict the future. And therefore, we should not attempt to draft a plan that is static, rigid, or fragile.

But this much we do know:

We need to think creatively about solutions, do research and exchange ideas.

But we also know that thinking alone is not enough.
We need to speak — to give our ideas voice in clear, persuasive words; to build support in our communities, across South Africa, and abroad.

But we also know that speaking alone is not enough.
We need to act — to translate ideas into reality, to do real things in the real world.

But we also know that action alone is not enough.

And so, when people say that we should stop thinking and start talking, or stop talking and start doing, or stop doing and start thinking, it only conveys that the expectation is based on a misapprehension. We should not stop thinking, we should not stop speaking and we should not stop doing. These three elements do not form a linear process, but a continuous, reinforcing cycle. A cycle that forms the mission statement of Lex Libertas.

So when people say:
“Stop thinking and start talking,”

or “Stop talking and start doing,”

or “Stop doing and go back to thinking…”

they are missing the point.

**These three elements do not form a sequence — they form a cycle. **A continuous, reinforcing rhythm.

And that cycle — thinking, speaking, and doing — is at the heart of the mission of Lex Libertas.

When we speak, and when we act, we do not need to whisper. We can shout it from the rooftops — because our goal is pure, noble, and defensible.

I am committed. I am going all in.

Our team is committed. They are going all in.

Our contributors are committed. They have already stepped outside their comfort zones. They are already thinking, speaking, and doing.

And soon, we will begin channelling this support into practical ways for people to get involved — for those who want to do more than contribute… to build, to organise, to lead.

We are still small. After all, this is only our launch.

But we are already growing. And I am convinced that we will continue to grow — because our goal is clear, and our pursuit is noble.

So to those still sitting in the pavilion — especially our young people — those who are eager to join the field:

I invite you — join us.
Become part of the solution.
Help us change this country for the better.
Help us build a beacon of hope.

With our torch in hand and guided by our compass, through our thoughts, our words, and our actions, we shall shine a light that — if we succeed — will change the course of history, and inspire the world…

at Lex Libertas.