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Jack and Jill went down the hill...
30 April 2015 – The IRR’s Fast Facts report published this week takes a glance at South Africa’s ‘born frees’, defined as people born in or after 1990. As the figures show, born frees have not been guaranteed free passage to prosperity by political freedom. The road to a better life is fraught with major hurdles, mainly poor education and high unemployment.
Born free but still in chains
29 April 2015 – Born frees, people born after 1990, will increasingly become more involved in violent protests, and abandon democratic institutions, due to ongoing political and economic alienation.
The IRR's Better Expropriation Bill
22 April 2015 – The Expropriation Bill of 2015, recently put forward by public works minister Thulas Nxesi, (the Nxesi Bill) will make it much harder to build prosperity and overcome past disadvantage by undermining property rights, deterring investment, and choking off growth and jobs, warns the IRR (Institute of Race Relations).
IRR statement on hooliganism at the University of Cape Town
9 April 2015 – Rhodes and his statue are not the concern – our concern is exclusively how quickly a tide of intimidation was able to overcome the liberal culture of open academic discourse that should prevail on all our campuses and what this means for the future of our academic institutions.
Housing cutbacks mooted, but unlikely
1 April 2015 – A Fast Facts report released today by the IRR finds that expenditure on housing has grown faster than any other budget item since 1999, and that the Government is unlikely to curtail it.
Piped water provided to at least 1.3 million people every year
30 March 2015 – At least 22.2 million people got access to piped water between 1996 and 2013. This works out to an average of 1.3 million per year, or 109 000 people every month.
Eskom still faces massive 18 000 MW power shortfall
18 March 2015 – “South Africa’s precarious electricity supply is a national crisis which is crippling our economy,” says engineer Andrew Kenny in an analysis published today in @Liberty, the policy bulletin of the IRR.
Worrying dropout rates at school and university level - IRR report
13 March 2015 – Only half of children who enrol in grade 1 will ever have the experience of sitting in a matric class. Of those fortunate enough to make it to matric, only half will write mathematics as a subject. Also, only one in four matric pupils will pass maths with 50% or higher.
South African broadband costs over 10 times that of the UK
9 March 2015 – The average monthly cost of broadband in South Africa is more than 10 times that of the United Kingdom (UK). However, the UK enjoys broadband speed that is five times higher than that of South Africa.
The new Expropriation Bill – Unconstitutional and Economically Disastrous
4 March 2015 – The Expropriation Bill of 2015 again gives the State the power to take ownership and possession of property of virtually any kind by notice to the owner – and without a prior court order confirming the validity of the expropriation.
Trade unions lose control of the workshop floor
9 February 2015 – Fewer than one in five South Africans who are economically active are choosing to join trade unions. Registered union membership declined by 26% between 1994 and 2014. This is according to the latest South Africa Survey, published by the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) in Johannesburg.
Traffic in the sky
3 February 2015 – The highest number of international aircraft movements in the past 10 years was recorded in 2014, according to the latest South Africa Survey, released this week by the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR). Between 2002/03 and 2013/14 international aircraft movements increased by 57% from 47 294 to 74 088. The traffic in the sky is on the increase.
