17 January 2021 - Of the two books I received as Christmas presents, I am well into Martin Amis’s unusual, thrillingly revelatory autobiographical novel Inside Story. The second, Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now, is first on the to-be-read pile at my bedside.
Media
Every week we reach hundreds of thousands of people through placing arguments in the media in support of the principles we stand for. No other advocacy group in the country does as much as we do to promote support for policies that defend your right, and that of your community, to make decisions about your own life free from counter-productive government interference.
17 January 2021 - Your editorial referred to the “shock waves across the world” because of the attack on the US Capitol by mobs who had attended President Donald Trump’s rally (“Social media firms must be held accountable”, January 12).
16 January 2021 - An unfortunate inversion played out this week as teachers' union, Sadtu, and the government demonstrated more enlightened opinions on education and the broader Covid-19 pandemic threat than South Africa's elite private schools.
13 January 2021 - South Africa has more than 1.1 million Covid-19 infections and in excess of 31 000 Covid-related deaths. A stricter curfew and many other controls have recently been introduced and harsher lockdowns may yet be introduced at massive economic cost. And still the government has done nothing to secure Covid vaccines on the scale required to generate herd immunity.
13 January 2021 - At its 2017 national conference the ANC put prescribed assets on the table. The notion was to force financial institutions to invest a share of their savers’ funds in projects handpicked by the government to fund “public infrastructure, skills development and job creation”.
11 January 2021 - If last week’s invasion of Capitol Hill was an attempted coup, then it ranks as one of the most inept in history.
IRR welcomes Covid-19 vaccine progress following legal letter to Minister, but important issues remain - IRR
7 January 2021 - The IRR is pleased by the progress made with regards to the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines for South Africans in the 72 hours since the delivery by legal representatives of the Institute of an urgent letter to the Minister of Health.
7 January 2021 - THE Institute of Race Relations will be approaching the minister of health, all MECs for health, and the heads of major hospital and health insurers to learn what vaccine-related supplies have been procured, from which providers, how these will be distributed, and when such distribution will begin.
5 January 2021 - The United Kingdom’s exit last week from the European Union is a victory for legitimacy, democracy, decentralisation, and accountability. These principles, and the regain of British sovereignty, are what have really been at stake all along in the often acrimonious relationship between the UK and other members of the EU. They outweigh such issues as fishing quotas and trading rules.
27 December 2020 - Dagbreek in Afrika is amper altyd iets om te aanskou.
14 December 2020 - What could be more agreeable? Oodles of electricity free of charge and free of carbon.
14 December 2020 - Some claiming to love freedom may balk at celebrating Cambridge University’s resounding vote to ditch the idea of “respect” for people and ideas in favour of “tolerance” in its policy on free speech.