IRR and SAHRC to meet over racial classification

The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) are to meet this week to discuss the issue of racial classification. The IRR wrote to the Commission in August to request a meeting, given the harm caused by South Africa’s continued reliance on apartheid-era racial classification.

Says Makone Maja, IRR Campaign Manager: “Racial classification is a damning stain on the country’s history. This is defined by many as the bedrock of the racist apartheid regime and yet continues to permeate many of our democratic institutions in the present day.

“These arbitrary categories − ‘black’, ‘white’, ‘coloured’, and ‘Indian’ − were manufactured during apartheid and pioneered primarily through the since-repealed Population Registration Act, and subsequently through the Group Areas and Bantu Homelands Citizenship Acts, among others. These laws dictated to people what their ‘race’ was based on frivolously defined groups, and were used to enforce and administer discrimination, prejudice, hate, and ignorance.”

Continues Maja: “As a product of Section 9 of the Constitution, the SAHRC is best suited to providing clarity on the reasons and justifications for the sustained dependence on racial classification in many of our laws and institutions, and providing direction on the future of these provisions.

“An alarming trend has seen democratic South Africa reverse the progress made in outlawing racialisation and the racist institutions adopted from apartheid. This is evident in the 141 racialised Acts of Parliament in operation in 2024, up from the 52 in 1996, as documented by the IRR’s Race Laws Index.”

Says Maja: “Simply put, there have never been as many race-based laws, regulations and directives in South African history than today, not even at the peak of apartheid. And unfortunately, this could mean that some South Africans have only become more racially conscious, instead of less.

“The functions of racial categories today as pushed by entities such as the Commission for Employment Equity closely mirror those under apartheid – to control outcomes along racial lines. This incessant control has not delivered the desired results and led to a doubling down on the reliance on race.

“Will history judge us as harshly as apartheid for the racist institutions we operate today, or will it absolve us? The SAHRC, as well as the rest of the country, must decide,” Maja concludes.

Media Contact: Makone Maja, IRR Campaign Manager Tel: 079 418 6676 Email: makone@irr.org.za

Media enquiries: Michael Morris Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za