IRR chief economist, Ian Cruickshanks, has said that the Governor of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), Ms Gill Marcus, may still prove to be overly optimistic in her GDP growth forecast for 2013. This is despite the forecast having been revised down from over 3% a year ago to 1.9% in the SARB’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) statement today.
The number of Africans being awarded degrees by South African universities has increased by more than 300%, according to data from the latest South Africa Survey, to be released by the South African Institute of Race Relations in Johannesburg next week.
The number of pupils attending independent schools in South Africa increased by 50% between 2000 and 2009. At the same time the number of pupils attending public schools increased only 1.6%, according to the latest South Africa Survey, to be published by the South African Institute of Race Relations next week in Johannesburg.
South Africa is ranked 75 out of 178 countries in the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, published by the Heritage Foundation this week.
The CEO of the South African Institute of Race Relations, John Kane-Berman, has spoken out in defence of efforts by the Congress of South African Trade Unions to promote the role of civil society organizations in the country. COSATU came in for considerable criticism from both the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) after inviting a group of civil society organizations to a meeting in Boksburg in October. Kane-Berman has described the criticism directed at COSATU as “Stalinism straight and simple”.
Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel has rightly repudiated government spokesman Jimmy Manyi for his statement that coloured people are ‘over-concentrated’ in the Western Cape. So too has the African National Congress (ANC). But the Government of which Manuel is part is still planning to enact a bill that could cause coloured people to move out of the Western Cape if they want work, says the South African Institute of Race Relations.
The average job created by Phase 2 of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) lasts only 46 days, the South African Institute of Race Relations said in Johannesburg today.
The proportion of South African adults with the lowest living standards fell from 11% in 2001 to 1% in 2011. In the same period, the proportion of people with the highest living standards increased from 5% to 6%, according to the South African Institute of Race Relations.
The number of hectares transferred through the land restitution programme could have been doubled if some beneficiaries had not received financial compensation instead, according to the latest South Africa Survey, published by the South African Institute of Race Relations in Johannesburg this week.
The Licensing of Businesses Bill of 2013 (the Bill), recently gazetted by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), will need an army of bureaucrats to implement, says the South African Institute of Race Relations in a submission made to the DTI last week.
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.
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.
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.
The proportion of adults with the lowest living standards has decreased by 77% over the last ten years according to the latest South Africa Survey, published by the South African Institute of Race Relations last week.
An established long-term trend of declining employment in agriculture is revealed in the new South Africa Survey recently published by the South African Institute of Race Relations in Johannesburg.
A quarter of unemployed people have been looking for work for more than five years, and a further 40% have been out of work for at least a year according to the latest South Africa Survey, published by the South African Institute of Race Relations in Johannesburg last week.
South Africa has recently dropped to 64th out of 96 on the 2012-2013 Fraser Institute’s international policy potential index, which measures the attractiveness to investors of different mining countries. “If the draft Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Bill of 2012 (the Bill) is made law, the country’s score is sure to tumble further,” says the South African Institute of Race Relations. “For the Bill ignores economic reality, while giving the mining minister many more discretionary powers.”
The socio-economic circumstances and inequalities that allowed Mr Julius Malema to become such a force in South African politics were still in evidence.
No fair referendum or election can be held in Zimbabwe on the basis of the current voters’ roll, according to a report published by the South African Institute of Race Relations (the Institute).
In an attempt at damage control, President Jacob Zuma has sought to assure coloured people in the Western Cape and Indians in KwaZulu-Natal that the Employment Equity Amendment Bill does not mean what it says, states the South African Institute of Race Relations.