The people behind the mission
Providing direction, oversight, and principled guidance in support of freedom of expression.
Board of Directors
Mark Oppenheimer
Executive Director
Mark Oppenheimer is a constitutional law expert and practising advocate at the Johannesburg Bar. He specialises in free speech, property rights, and legal challenges to race-based legislation, and has extensive experience in complex litigation.
He has appeared in high-profile matters before the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court, and is a regular contributor to public debate on legal and constitutional issues, particularly those relating to individual rights and the rule of law.
Mark serves as a consultant to the Free Market Foundation’s Rule of Law Project.
David Ansara
Director
David Ansara is a policy analyst, commentator, and media contributor on issues relating to governance, economic reform, and individual liberty. He has extensive experience in public policy, strategic communications, and advocacy.
He is a regular voice in the media and public debate, contributing to discussions on South Africa’s political and economic future.
David is the Chief Executive Officer of the Free Market Foundation, where he leads the organisation’s work in advancing economic freedom, the rule of law, and an open society in South Africa.
Gail Day
Director
Gail Day is a qualified teacher and computer programmer with extensive experience in advocacy and policy work.
She was coordinator for Groundswell from 1987 to 1994, promoting democracy and voter education in the lead-up to South Africa’s first post-apartheid election, where she also served as campaign manager for the Federal Party.
Gail has been associated with the Free Market Foundation since 1987, contributing to training programmes, constitutional transition work, event coordination, and media advocacy.
She is currently the FMF’s Head of Operations and Deputy Chair of its Executive Committee.
Martin van Staden
Director
Martin van Staden is a legal scholar, policy analyst, and commentator specialising in constitutional law, the rule of law, and individual liberty. He has extensive experience in public policy, legal research, and advocacy.
He is a regular contributor to public debate on legal and political issues in South Africa, with a particular focus on property rights, decentralisation, and limiting state overreach.
Martin is the Head of Policy at the Free Market Foundation, where he leads research and advocacy on legal and policy reform.
Board of Advisors
David Benatar
David Benatar is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town.
His books, which have been translated into multiple languages, include Better Never to Have Been (Oxford, 2006), The Second Sexism (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), The Human Predicament: (Oxford, 2017), and Very Practical Ethics (Oxford, 2024). He has written about free speech issues in The Fall of the University of Cape Town (Politicsweb, 2021) and elsewhere.
He has held visiting positions at Brandeis, Emory, and Princeton universities, the United States’ National Institutes of Health, as well as at Western University, and the University of Toronto.
Rebecca Tuvel
Rebecca Tuvel is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Rhodes College, in Memphis Tennessee. Her work explores issues in feminist philosophy, philosophy of race, applied ethics, and the ethics of inquiry.
In the wake of the controversy surrounding her work on transracial identity, she became an advocate of academic freedom, free expression, and open inquiry. She serves on the editorial board of Journal of Controversial Ideas, is a member of the Academic Freedom Alliance, and participates in the PPE Society’s working group on the ethical limits of academic inquiry. In 2025, she received an Academic Freedom Prize from the Columbia Academic Freedom Council.