IRR: Will SA’s universities choose excellence – or settle for “good enough” – under race and sex quotas?
As part of its nationwide campaign to end government-imposed racial classification, the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has written to the vice-chancellors and principals of all 26 South African universities with a clear challenge: when the Employment Equity Amendment Act’s reporting period begins on 1 September, will your university demonstrate that it appointed the best candidates available – or sacrificed excellence to meet race and sex quotas?
The letters to university leaders form part of the IRR’s #NoMoreRaceLaws campaign, which includes a legislative proposal – the #NoMoreRaceLaws Bill – to make it illegal for the government to racially classify South Africans or enforce race-based laws and quotas. The Bill seeks to scrap all legislation that empowers the state to divide citizens by race, and to restore non-racialism, merit, and equal rights as founding principles of South African law.
Says IRR Strategic Engagements Manager Makone Maja: “Our universities are at a crossroads. They can either uphold their duty to students by hiring and retaining the best minds South Africa has to offer – or they can comply with the state’s racial arithmetic and risk mediocrity. The #NoMoreRaceLaws Bill exists to give institutions like universities the legislative protection they need to choose merit over mandated quotas.”
Under the Employment Equity Sectoral Numerical Targets, universities are required to report and align staff demographics with rigid racial and sex-based formulas. These targets – which carry the force of law – apply to both public and private employers and come with steep penalties for non-compliance.
To comply, institutions must conduct a workforce audit based on the EEA12 form – which offers no “Other” option and forces South Africans to classify themselves as African, Coloured, Indian, or White.
In terms of the new regulations, designated employers have until 31 August 2025 to complete or update their existing employment equity plans (to meet the new required targets within five years, 2025 to 2030), which must be submitted to the Minister of Employment and Labour between 1 September 2025 to 1 January 2026 for approval and the issuance of a certificate.
Maja asks: “Will universities impose forced racial classification, as was done under apartheid? Will they reject a gifted candidate – perhaps an Indian woman or a white man – not because of lack of merit, but because their demographic group has ‘too many’ people in a particular role?”
According to the IRR, such regulations distort opportunity, undermine dignity, and threaten the very purpose of higher education.
“Quotas do not build excellence. They enforce conformity. They tell talented young South Africans that they were born at the wrong time, with the wrong skin colour or sex. The #NoMoreRaceLaws Bill is about restoring fairness – about giving every person a chance to succeed on their own merit.”
The IRR warns that the consequences of these quotas will be felt most acutely by students.
“When universities are forced to choose ‘representative’ candidates over the best ones, it’s the students – of all races – who suffer. Their future depends on learning from the best, not the best-fitted to a quota,” says Maja.
The IRR’s letters to all universities will be published in the weeks ahead. The Institute’s #NoMoreRaceLaws campaign will continue to build public pressure to end apartheid-style classification in every sector of society – starting with the country’s universities.
Media contact: Makone Maja, IRR Strategic Engagements Manager Tel: 079 418 6676 Email: makone@irr.org.za
Media enquiries: Michael Morris Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za