IEC tries to overrule Constitutional Court – IRR
7 September 2021 - Contrary to explicit direction from the Constitutional Court, the Electoral Commission (IEC) has said it will try to reopen candidate nominations for the local government elections.
6 September 2021 - Brett Herron, secretary-general of the GOOD party, recently wrote an article for Daily Maverick which that publication headlined “South Africa’s shocking jobless figures make a basic income grant a social, moral, and historical imperative”.
Open voter registration, not candidate lists – IRR
6 September 2021 - The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) calls on civil society and the news media to lead the drive to urge South Africans to register to vote. This is always important, all the more so during this election cycle in which the dominant party is effectively broke and the registration process has been repressed.
Elections ruling a vindication of constitutional democracy – IRR
4 September 2021 - The Constitutional Court’s order to proceed with elections as the law requires, and as scores of other countries have done successfully, is historic.
ANC signals triple threat to peaceful handover – IRR
3 September 2021 - The ANC has three major reasons to expect eye-watering electoral losses this year. First, party support declined by 8 basis points to 53.9% in the last municipal cycle (2011 – 2016) on the back of socio-economic and maladministration trends that have worsened since. At that rate it would fall to at least 46% this year, a rough guideline given the failure to reverse material decline in governance.
2 September 2021 - LGBTQ South Africans are losing confidence in the ability of the country’s political leadership to provide a safe and secure environment for the vulnerable community.
ConCourt holds ANC get-out-of-jail card – IRR
1 September 2021 - On Monday 30 August, the ANC sent papers to the Electoral Court asking for an order to reopen the candidate lists for municipal elections, but withdrew that appeal the next day. This means that the ANC will have to face the October 27 elections without candidates in over 90 municipalities, in part due to low morale among unpaid ANC staff, according to its own court papers.
Withdrawing extra-12% Job Tax a win with a warning – IRR
1 September 2021 - Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu has withdrawn her green paper proposal for a social security plan that would amount to an exorbitant extra income tax on workers. The plan was opposed by the IRR on the basis that it was unaffordable to working South Africans, that it would harm existing pension savings, and that it would fuel state capture v2.0 corruption. The plan was also opposed by other NGOs, political parties, and trade unions.
31 August 2021 - The IRR formally launched the website ‘Educate don’t Indoctrinate’ (Edonti) on Friday 20 August as a resource for parents, teachers and students, to inform them about Critical Race Theory (CRT), how to recognise it and how to respond to it. Through the site we also offer talks, presentations and circumstance-specific advice.
Time for SA parties to acknowledge the power of the Pink Vote – IRR
31 August 2021 - The Pink Vote, which refers to the voting preferences of the LGBTQ population, is a strategically untapped market for political parties.
30 August 2021 - Milling around outside the Cape presidential residence, then called Groote Schuur, awaiting the outcome of the first official meeting between the ANC and government in May 1990, I remember overhearing a conversation between a young activist fresh from the ranks of the Mass Democratic Movement and a curious foreign correspondent.
29 August 2021 - The American abandonment of Afghanistan has prompted speculation that the United States (US), humiliated once again by an Asian nation, will now retreat into isolationism.
