Meyer's rejection of "white genocide" supported by majority of South Africans - IRR

South Africa’s ambassador to the United States, Roelf Meyer, is in step with a clear majority of South Africans in rejecting the allegation that a “white genocide” is taking place in the country.

Polling by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) in March found that 72% of South Africans disagreed with the claim that there was a white genocide in South Africa. Only 19% agreed.

What is equally striking is the similarly high level of agreement among South Africans that the state should ditch apartheid-era race classification.

Asked about the continued use of the categories of black, white, coloured, and Indian to determine access to business and job opportunities, 70% said government should not continue using race in this way. Only 27% supported keeping them.

Opposition to racial classification extended across all groups – 64% of black respondents, 85% of coloured respondents, 74% of Indian respondents, and 97% of white respondents.

Says IRR Head of Strategic Communications Hermann Pretorius: “Roelf Meyer is right to reject claims of a white genocide, and IRR polling shows that most South Africans agree with him.

“But our polling also asks us to listen to South Africans when they speak about the other side of our racial debate. Seventy percent do not want the state continuing to use apartheid-era racial categories to decide access to jobs and business opportunities.”

Pretorius highlights other responses in IRR polling which reinforce the proposition that there is “a substantial foundation on which to build a genuinely non-racial South Africa”.

Fully 89% agreed that the different races need each other for progress and that there should be full opportunity for people of all colours. That figure had risen from 84% in the IRR’s 2025 polling.

South Africans overwhelmingly reject the idea that the country is experiencing a white genocide, they overwhelmingly reject the proposition that government should continue sorting them into apartheid-era racial categories to determine who may receive opportunities, and almost nine out of ten believe that South Africans of different races need one another and should enjoy full opportunities.

Concludes Pretorius: “The public appears considerably less interested in racial absolutism than either side of the international argument sometimes assumes. Most South Africans reject exaggerated claims about racial persecution while also rejecting a system of government policy that continues to classify people according to race. 

“And the most encouraging finding may be the simplest one: 89% believe the different races need one another for progress and that there should be full opportunity for people of all colours.”

The IRR survey was conducted between 9 and 20 March 2026 among a representative sample of 1,038 respondents. At a 95% confidence level, the survey has a margin of error of approximately three percentage points.

Media contact: Hermann Pretorius IRR Head of Strategic Communications Tel: 079 875 4290 Email: hermann@irr.org.za

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