Misrepresentation of IRR’s posts can’t alter the fact that South Africans want merit not quotas

It is unfortunate that the editor of The Citizen, a newspaper of repute and notable history, has chosen to undermine the well-established principles of a right of reply. By changing the headline of the reply from “The IRR will not apologise for the truth – The Citizen should apologise for misleading its readers” to “IRR responds to quota campaign criticism, no apology”, and by affixing the editor's own response to it, The Citizen has acted in bad faith and with regrettable unprofessionalism.

Last week, the IRR published one of the findings from its upcoming polling report, Pro-Growth or Pro-Poverty: Findings of IRR Polling 2025 – Report 3: Race and Race Relations in South Africa as of 2025.

The finding is straightforward: 92% of South Africans support merit-based sports teams rather than teams selected on the basis of racial quotas. This stance cuts firmly across racial lines, with 92% of black respondents, 92% of coloured respondents, 86% of Indian respondents, and 93% of white respondents endorsing this pragmatic, unifying, non-racial position.

To share this finding effectively on social media, the IRR published graphics featuring Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, and Bongi Mbonambi in two mock-up playing-card-style formats: one in green and gold highlighting their particular achievements, and another in greyscale reducing them to nothing more than a racial category, with what is presented as a government stamp of approval.

Says Hermann Pretorius, IRR Head of Strategic Communications and author of the IRR’s 2025 polling reports: “The contrast made visual in these designs is directly linked to what makes the polling finding so important: the South African government insists, despite the repeal of the Population Registration Act in 1991, on sorting South Africans by race. This happens in many parts of life, from quotas in the workplace to, yes, quotas on the sports field.”

Other findings in the IRR’s forthcoming report reinforce this point. On job appointments, 84% of South Africans favour merit-based selection, whether through pure merit (31%) or merit combined with skills-development support for the disadvantaged (53%). The picture is clear: South Africans reject divisive racial favouritism and prefer a society built on excellence, fairness, and opportunity.

Presenting credible data alongside a visual illustration of how South Africans see excellence, and how the government continues to see racial categories, is an effective way to show rather than merely tell the truth about the non-racial majority. Instead of acknowledging this, The Citizen’s editor elected to obscure it and instead accused the IRR, bizarrely, of both theft and racism.

Adds Pretorius: “Perhaps the legal position requires some explanation. For public figures, like athletes, their image and appearance are commercial assets. To devalue those assets by implying endorsement of a product or enterprise is illegal. The IRR did no such thing. No fundraising link or sign-up prompt accompanied any of the posts featuring the three Springbok players. The captions highlighted the polling finding: ordinary South Africans see sporting champions as national heroes, while government policy reduces people to racial categories.

“There is no implication of endorsement or support. There is commentary, with a visual contrast, illustrating the central matter: the data finding itself.”

The IRR cordially invites The Citizen and all media to join an online webinar on 26 November for the presentation of the full polling report on the state of race relations in South Africa. Details will be announced shortly.

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

Media enquiries:

Anneke Burns

IRR Public Relations

+27 71 423 0079

anneke@abpr.co.za