South African Institute of Race Relations

This article is about the South African research institute, for the British think tank see Institute of Race Relations (United Kingdom)

South African Institute of Race Relations
AbbreviationIRR
Formation1929; 95 years ago (1929)
Registration no.1937/010068/08
Legal statusNon-profit, Public Benefit Organisation
PurposePublic policy advocacy
Headquarters222 Smit Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
Location
  • South Africa
Coordinates26°10′51″S 28°00′45″E / 26.18083°S 28.01250°E / -26.18083; 28.01250
Chief Executive Officer
John Endres
Staff
30 - 50
Websiteirr.org.za

The South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) is a research and policy organisation in South Africa. The IRR was founded in 1929 to improve and report upon race relations in South Africa between the politically dominant white group and the black, coloured, and Indian populations,[1]: 25  making the Institute "one of the oldest liberal institutions in the country".[2]

The Institute investigates socioeconomic conditions in South Africa, and aims to address issues such as poverty and inequality, and to promote economic growth through promoting a system of limited government, a market economy, private enterprise, freedom of speech, individual liberty, property rights, and the rule of law.[3] The IRR tracks trends in every area of South Africa's development, ranging from business and the economy to crime, living conditions, and politics.

Throughout most of its history of opposing segregation and Apartheid, it has been regarded as liberal.[4]: 79, 84  In 1958, Gwendolen M. Carter wrote that "the Institute keeps close touch with non-European groups and over a long period of time has constituted itself as a spokesman for their interests."[5]: 336  In more recent years the IRR and its work has also been variously labelled as right-wing (for instance by the academic Roger Southall[6] and former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba[7]), conservative (in a New Frame editorial[8] and by NEHAWU Western Cape secretary Luthando Nogcinisa[9]), and reactionary (by former NUMSA spokesperson Irvin Jim[10]), although it describes itself as adhering to classical liberalism.[11][12]

During the periods of segregation and Apartheid, the IRR mostly drew its support from urbanites, tending to be from United Party-dominated parliamentary wards, who had a more "liberal" view on South Africa's race question.[13]: 71 

Historian JP Brits argues that the IRR and its spiritual predecessor, the Joint Councils of Europeans and Africans, were the "most important extra-parliamentary organisations” to take an interest in the welfare of black South Africans. Both the Joint Councils and the IRR supported and had "native representatives" (whites chosen to represent blacks in Parliament) as their members and functionaries.[13]: 47 

The IRR, alongside the Liberal Party, the Progressive Party, the Black Sash, the Civil Rights League, and the National Union of South African Students, according to Timothy Hughes, formed "the core of the 'liberal establishment'" in South Africa from the 1950s.[14]: 26  In 1996, the academic Hugh Corder, and later critic,[15] described the IRR as an important “national asset.”[16]: 133 

  1. ^ Byrne, Errol (1990). The First Liberal ~ Rheinallt Jones. Johannesburg: Angel Press. ISBN 0-620-14291-X.
  2. ^ Hearn, Julie (1 October 2000). "Aiding democracy? Donors and civil society in South Africa". Third World Quarterly. Vol. 21, no. 5. p. 827.
  3. ^ "About Us — Institute Of Race Relations". Irr.org.za. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  4. ^ Rich, Paul (1981). "The South African institute of race relations and the debate on race relations, 1929-1958". Collected Seminar Papers. Institute of Commonwealth Studies. 28: 77–90. ISSN 0076-0773.
  5. ^ Carter, Gwendolen M. (1958). The Politics of Inequality: South Africa Since 1948. London: Thames and Hudson.
  6. ^ "LETTER: IRR now a right-wing agitator". BusinessLIVE. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  7. ^ "Herman Mashaba: 'Far right-wing' IRR has done 'too much damage' to the DA". TimesLIVE. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  8. ^ Frame, By: New; Editorial (25 October 2019). "Will the DA become an anglicised FF+?". New Frame. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  9. ^ "ANC battles unholy alliance". TimesLIVE. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  10. ^ "Numsa: SAIRR hostile towards ANC". News24. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  11. ^ Endres, John. "RIGHT OF REPLY | John Endres: The IRR holds the liberal line against the left". News24. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  12. ^ Corrigan, Terence (7 September 2021). "LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The Institute of Race Relations is on the same long, hard path as it always was — the path of classical liberalism". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  13. ^ a b Brits, JP (1994). Op die Vooraand van Apartheid: Die Rassevraagstuk en die Blanke Politiek in Suid-Afrika, 1939-1948. Pretoria: University of South Africa. ISBN 086981835X.
  14. ^ Hughes, Tim (1994). "Political liberalism in South Africa in the 1980s and the formation of the Democratic Party". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. ^ "OPEN LETTER | 'We are concerned about the direction the IRR is taking'". News24. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  16. ^ Corder, Hugh (1997). "Shrill and overstated". In Husemeyer, Libby (ed.). Watchdogs or Hypocrites? The Amazing Debate on South African Liberals and Liberalism. Johannesburg: Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung. ISBN 0-9584163-7-0.