Press Release: Single-medium schools losing hold on African languages
Public single-medium African language schools have declined since 2008, from 7.2% of all single-medium schools to 4.6% in 2012.
Press Release: Pupils also seek greener pastures
A combined total of 153 392 school-aged children between 6 and 18 left the Eastern Cape, the Free State, Limpopo, and the North West between 2001 and 2007, but only 90 998 moved into those provinces.
Speaking after his budget speech, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan reminded us that the private sector was responsible for generating 70% of gross domestic product (GDP).
The South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) recently published a "twelve-point plan for a better South Africa". We were accused of casting "pearls before swine" and told that "the establishment is dead set against each and every point of this pie-in-the-sky plan". Maybe. But it is not unusual for governments to adopt plans they once dismissed.
If South African schoolchildren were elephants, there would be an international outcry against the culling in the schooling system.
Press Release: Opinion polls take SA’s temperature: people losing confidence
The proportion of people who believe that the Government is performing well dropped by 37%, from 74% in 2002 to 54% in 2012.
Press Release: Daily Sun, Sunday Times, Ukhozi FM, SABC 1 leaders in their respective fields
Adults choose the Daily Sun, the Sunday Times, SABC 1, and Ukhozi FM as firm favourites among daily and weekly newspapers, television stations, and radio stations.
Press Release: Internet used mostly for data searching and for recreation
The majority of adult South Africans use the Internet to search for information while the number of those using it for chatting has grown the fastest.
Press Release: Most household internet access occurs via mobile phones
Less than a fifth of households would have access to the Internet if there was no access through mobile phones. As it is, more than a third of households have access to the Internet.
Press Release: Mobile phones have replaced telephones in homes as main mode of communication
Some 89% of South African homes have access to mobile phones compared to only 14% that have access to landline telephones.
Press Release: Economic hubs show highest shack growth rate
The number of households residing in shacks in the Western Cape grew by 82% over a fifteen-year period, the highest growth rate out of all the provinces.
Press Release: Electricity the fastest delivered basic service
Households were connected to the electricity grid faster than they received housing, water, and sanitation services, according to the latest South Africa Survey, published by the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) in Johannesburg recently.
Press Release: More than 20 shacks destroyed by fire everyday
An average of 23 shacks a day were destroyed by fire between 2010 and 2013, according to the latest South Africa Survey, published by the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) in Johannesburg recently.
Press Release: Three out of five cases against police are for torture
Some 62% of cases received by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) against police officers are for torture and assault.
Press Release: Security guards increase six times faster than police as robberies double and more
The growth of active private security guards over a 15-year period is more than six times faster than that of police officers employed for active police duties.
Press Release: Astronomical leap in lengthy prison sentences
Prisoners serving sentences of ten years and more rose from 2% of 84 000 to 48% of 91 000 sentenced inmates between 1995 and 2012.
Press Release: Africans have the least livestock but suffer most from livestock theft
African households experience 92% of all stock theft cases reported, according to the 2013 South Africa Survey, published by the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) in Johannesburg recently.
Press Release: DA/ANC support for the Restitution Bill risks disaster on a par with Britain’s scorched earth policy during the Boer War
Two pieces of pending legislation could together result in the expropriation of commercial farming operations with zero compensation.
Press Release: Extended households record short-term leap
Extended household numbers rose sharply by almost a million in just two years and were the only type of household to experience growth, according to the latest South Africa Survey, published by the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) last week.
Press Release: Africa’s adult mortality: SA in bottom five of thirty-five
The probability of a 15-year-old dying before the age of 60 is higher in South Africa than in over 30 other African countries, according to the latest South Africa Survey, published by the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) last week
Press Release: 1 in 2 pregnant women in Gert Sibande district HIV-positive, but only 6% in Namakwa
Some 46.1% of women attending public antenatal clinics in the Gert Sibande district municipality (Mpumalanga) are HIV-positive.
Press Release: South Africa’s TB incidence rate one of the highest in the world
South Africa has one of the worst tuberculosis (TB) incidence rates in the world, with 993 people out of 100 000 living with the disease.
Press Release - New HIV infections halve from almost 2 000 to fewer than 1 000 a day
Approximately 1 000 people get infected with HIV daily in South Africa. High as this may seem, the figure has decreased by more than 50% since 1999.
MUCH of the forthcoming commentary on 20 years of rule by the African National Congress (ANC) is likely to play down one of its major successes. This is the extent to which it has swung the country behind its racial agenda.
Press release: IRR’s South Africa Survey launches in Johannesburg today
A special edition of the South Africa Survey in honour of Nelson Mandela was launched by the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) in Johannesburg today. The Survey is the annual yearbook on all social, economic, and political aspects of South Africa that the IRR has been publishing since 1946.
ALTHOUGH South Africa has been slipping down various international rankings, anyone drawing up a balance sheet of rule by the African National Congress (ANC) since it came to power in 1994 must be struck as much by the successes as by the failures.
Press release: Economic Freedom Index
South Africa is ranked 75 out of 178 countries in the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, published by the Heritage Foundation this week.
The real threat to Mandela's legacy, John Kane-Berman argues, is not disintegrating racial harmony in South Africa but current economic policies that could damage growth.
The IRR's CEO, John Kane-Berman, warns that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) must resist the State's efforts to interfere with them.
Race relations stable in post-Mandela South Africa - 6th December 2013.
The South African Institute of Race Relations wishes to express its sadness at the death of the former president, Nelson Mandela, and its condolences to Mrs. Graca Machel and other family members.
