Consider that, in the economy, growth rates rebounded from the negative levels recorded through much of the 1980s and early 1990s to average just on 3% between 1994 and 2003 and over 5% between 2004 and 2007. Total real GDP more than doubled.
Latest from the IRR
SONA 2017 Press Release – South Africa's silver lining
8 February 2017 – With the State of the Nation 2017 a day away, thoughts turn once again to the serious challenges facing South Africa. Regular readers of our reports and users of our briefing services will know just how serious those challenges are. But, according to an IRR report released today, there is a ‘silver lining’ as the country has also made progress in terms of the economy, the world of work, living standards and service delivery, education, health and crime.
SONA 2017 press release – Race relations in South Africa still sound, but fraying at the edges
7 February 2017 – The IRR’s comprehensive field survey of public opinion on racial issues shows that only 3% of South Africans see racism as a serious unresolved problem. Most are far more concerned about unemployment (cited by 40%), poor service delivery (listed by 34%), inadequate housing (18%), crime (15%) and bad education (likewise cited by 15%).
South Africa has made significant gains in racial transformation
6 February 2017 – The IRR’s transformation audit, in its January issue of Fast Facts, reveals that racial transformation of the South African workplace, asset ownership and state institutions has been significant and continues to improve.
Various journalists have worked themselves up into a lather about the supposed arrival of a "post-fact" or "post-fact" era heralded by the British decision to quit the European Union and the election of Donald Trump to the American presidency
Joshua Nott is damned either way. His former comrades call him a hypocrite and a sell-out. His detractors call him a hypocrite, and arrogant and self-righteous.
It's doubtful.
A Cuban model for South Africa’s Hate Speech Bill
31 January 2017 – Under the hate speech provisions in the Bill, any new equivalent of the Penny Sparrow comment comparing black beachgoers to monkeys could see its author jailed for up to three years. But a cartoon insulting President Jacob Zuma by drawing him with a showerhead fixed to his forehead could also see its author jailed for up to three years.
Public comments close today on the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill. It’s a bill that’s surface intentions are to counter the increased racial incidents last year. But when one digs a little deeper, the source of it points elsewhere. Anthea Jeffery is a constant thorn in government’s side, questioning all policy decisions with a sharp blade. In her latest installment Jeffery unpacks the Hate bill, and is concerned the underlying reasons for it may be detrimental to South Africa. Jeffery believes the Bill is unconstitutional and unnecessary – and should be withdrawn and replaced by a very different approach.
John Kane-Berman says the scholarships continue to go from strength to strength.
John Kane-Berman says for far to long the ANC has succeeded in bullying its opponents.
Ways we can bring our mining sector back on track.
In this piece, Majozi explains why we are concentrating on the wrong numbers. Let’s stop obsessing about the billionaires – they are ‘unnecessary distractions’. Instead, Majozi argues, pay close attention to what we can do to improve the chances of more people improving their own financial situations. Majozi outlines some suggestions to open up opportunities for the talented and ambitious.
John Kane-Berman says govt has yet to find a model of land redistribution that works.
In the halcyon days of life under Nelson Mandela, it was impossible to imagine how the the ANC could transform into a party that protects the personal interests of a few at the expense of the vast majority that it represents. Phumlani Majozi of the Institute of Race Relations pulls no punches in his assessment of the current state of the ANC.
South Africans spend almost 100 billion minutes talking on their mobile phones - IRR report
A new IRR report reveals the scale of South Africa’s mobile phone revolution.
Zuma’s Cabinet may have allowed these policies to continue and has indeed worsened some of them, but the Zuma administration is not responsible for the fact that those policies were adopted in the first place.
No mention of race or sex, no attempt to blame the city's ills on colonialism and apartheid or on Jan van Riebeeck. No trotting out of the National Development Plan (NDP), no calling for the supposed panacea of a new "social compact", no vague promises of "structural reform" to appease credit ratings agencies. No obsession with "inequality", n
The NHI Proposal Risking Lives For No Good Reason
10 December 2016 – The proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) system will fail to provide free and quality health services to all South Africans, says the IRR in a report published today.
The South African National Aids Council says the high rate of infections among young women between the ages of 14 and 25 remains a key concern. It says there are at least 2,000 new infections among girls between 15 and 24 per week. That’s 104,000 young women a year!
The motion has been tabled by Professor Timothy Crowe, with support. It follows a series of decisions by the executive, grounded in the appeasement of student lawbreakers and ideologues who have not been able to articulate their philosophy in any manner as to result in its common comprehension. The straw which has broken the camel’s back is the 6th of November agreement reached by the Executive with the Shackville TRC to form an Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation Commission (IRTC)/Shackville TRC.
With bold leadership, even one-party states can undergo radical reform, as we saw with Deng Xiaoping in China in the late 1970s and Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union a decade later. This is not an argument for one-party states,
From Jacob Zuma to Cyril Ramaphosa (and scores in between) South Africa’s politicians (and a fair number of journalists and social justice activists) have engaged in a week of nauseating adulation of deceased Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Approximately 60% of black people disagreed with the statement that “South Africa is a country for black-Africans and white people must learn to take second place”. Only 30% agreed and 10% were uncertain.
Some people may also realise that a more realistic projection, based on the cost of extending some 300 prescribed minimum benefits (PMBs) to all South Africans, would put NHI spending at R400bn in today’s terms. (However, since spending on health care has grown by 9% a year on average since 2011, the NHI funding need could be R790bn a year by 2025.)
Violent protests threaten social stability and otherwise legitimate forms of democratic expression are being manipulated for criminal ends; The State Security Agency (SSA) is mandated to detect threats to national security, guided by
Donald Trump's election to the American presidency not only confounded pollsters and freaked out the media, it also made fools of some of the film stars who strut the global political stage. These worthy personages seem to operate on the assumption that being a celebrity automatically confers upon them a special wisdom not bestowed
Should SA execute its most violent criminals? New IRR report provides some answers
22 November 2016 - The IRR has released a report on whether South Africa should reintroduce the death penalty. The report comes against a context of rising levels of serious and violent crime, often characterised by extraordinary cruelty and violence on the part of perpetrators. The current Rhodes Park murder and rape case would be an example.
DA: This is still being designed and determined, so it would be premature to discuss details before they are adopted by the party’s executive. The overall objective is that we want all DA structures to be intentional about recruiting and mentoring excellent black activists, whom will feed through into the talent pool for the DA’s candidate select
IRR says minimum wage will entrench structural unemployment
21 November 2016 - The proposed new minimum wage of R3 500 per month will do little to improve the circumstances of existing workers, while further limiting access to the labour market for unemployed people. This is according to analysts at the IRR.