 | |
| Abbreviation | IRR |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1929; 96 years ago (1929) |
| Registration no. | 1937/010068/08 |
| Legal status | Non-profit, Public Benefit Organisation |
| Purpose | Public policy advocacy |
| Headquarters | 222 Smit Street, Braamfontein,Johannesburg |
| Location |
|
| Coordinates | 26°10′51″S28°00′45″E / 26.18083°S 28.01250°E /-26.18083; 28.01250 |
Chief Executive Officer | John Endres |
| Staff | 30 - 50 |
| Website | irr |
TheSouth African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) is a research and policy organisation inSouth Africa. The IRR was founded in 1929 to improve and report upon race relations in South Africa between the politically dominantwhite group and theblack,coloured, andIndian 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 opposingsegregation andApartheid, 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 asright-wing (for instance by the academic Roger Southall[6] and former Johannesburg mayorHerman Mashaba[7]),conservative (in aNew Frame editorial[8] and byNEHAWU Western Cape secretary Luthando Nogcinisa[9]), andreactionary (by formerNUMSA spokespersonIrvin Jim[10]), although it describes itself as adhering toclassical liberalism.[11][12]
During the periods of segregation and Apartheid, the IRR mostly drew its support from urbanites, tending to be fromUnited 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 inParliament) as their members and functionaries.[13]: 47
The IRR, alongside theLiberal Party, theProgressive Party, theBlack Sash, the Civil Rights League, and theNational 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 academicHugh Corder, and later critic,[15] described the IRR as an important “national asset.”[16]: 133
Charles Templeman Loram and Maurice Evans established the Native Affairs Reform Association inNatal in 1910. The association consisted only of whites.[1]: 21 Loram was Chief Inspector of Native Education inNatal from 1917 to 1920, when he was appointed as a member of the South African government's Native Affairs Commission in 1920.[17]: 307
In 1921,Thomas Jesse Jones of thePhelps Stokes Fund andJames Emman Kwegyir Aggrey visited South Africa, bringing with them the idea of the “inter-racial commissions” spearheaded byWill Winton Alexander in theDeep South of the United States. Alexander'sCommission on Interracial Cooperation sought to “promote harmony” between white and black Americans toward the end of the First World War. John David Rheinallt Jones became the honorary secretary of the first "Joint Council" in South Africa, inJohannesburg,[1]: 21 and is regarded as a founder of the Joint Council movement.[1]: 26
The Joint Councils replaced the Natal Native Affairs Reform Association and were multiracial in composition. Brits notes that the Joint Councils brought together church groups, including the prominentDutch Reformed Church, university departments, the educational sector, journalists, civil servants, municipalities, and business. The members were from black groups, and it was mostly conservatives and moderates from the middle class that participated, even though the sentiment that led to the establishment of the councils was a liberal one.[13]: 48
The Joint Councils hosted National European African Conferences in 1924, 1929, and 1933, and one European and Coloured Conference in 1933.[1]: 22
Journalist Errol Byrne recounts the formation of the IRR as follows:
“On May 9, 1929 eight South African liberals met at the house of the Rev. Ray Phillips and his wife inBerea, Johannesburg. It wasAscension Thursday and a public holiday in South Africa. The meeting was called to order at 11 o’clock in the morning, and by the time it ended at 5 o’clock in the afternoon the Institute of Race Relations had been formed.”
The founders, according to Byrne, were Rheinallt Jones, Charles Loram, J Howard Pim (a government official),Edgar Brookes,Johannes du Plessis (a missionary and theologian),Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu (one of the first professors at theUniversity of Fort Hare), JH Nicholson (Mayor of Durban), and JG van der Horst.[1]: 25 Loram was chairman, Pim treasurer, and Jones secretary.[18]: 6 According to Colin de Berri Webb the founders also includedAlfred Hoernlé andLeo Marquard [af].[19]: 40 Michael Morris additionally writes that Thomas W Mackenzie, editor ofThe Friend newspaper ofBloemfontein, was present at the founding.[20] At the founding meeting the organisation's name was planned to be the “Committee on Race Relations,” but the Executive Committee changed this after the meeting had ended to the “Institute of Race Relations.”[21]: 201
The IRR ran a bursary scheme between 1935 and 2023, which had by 1980 awarded 3,685 bursaries to primarily black students. By 2013 this program had awarded in excess of R230 million worth of bursaries.[22]Nelson Mandela was awarded a bursary from the IRR in 1947 to complete his legal studies.[23]
The program was discontinued on 31 December 2023.[24]: 49
South Africa's inaugural pride parade began with speeches at the IRR office on 13 October 1990.[25] It was organized by former IRR employee,Simon Nkoli, an anti-apartheid, gay rights, and AIDS activist.[26]
In June 2013, the IRR published a policy bulletin[27] that challenged the concept of anthropogenicclimate change, which gained significant media traction. The organisation has consistently advocated a position ofclimate change denial, stating in a 2023 Parliamentary stakeholder engagement on the proposed climate change bill that theIPCC is "a political advocacy group with a powerful vested interest in spreading climate fear"[28]
In 2016, the IRR published a study whose results were critical towards South Africa's proposedSugar Sweetened Beverage tax. Upon enquiry by journalists, it was revealed that the study was funded byCoca-Cola. IRR CEO Frans Cronje said that the IRR chose not to disclose this source of funding as "it was not at any stage considered exceptional, noteworthy or controversial".[29] The IRR's public affairs officer Kelebogile Leepile said that the IRR intentionally approached groups who were likely to be negatively affected by the sugar tax and asked them to fund this research.[30]
In December 2018, the IRR announced that it would be working with controversial cartoonist, Jeremy Talfer Nell, known asJerm after he was fired by the civic organisationOrganisation Undoing Tax Abuse for publishing a cartoon that discussed the link between race and IQ.[31] The IRR defended their decision to hire Jeremy by saying that even though the link between race and IQ has been disproved, Asian-Americans still outperform Americans of other races with regards to income and education levels despite historically being victims of racism, and called Jeremy's firing “cowardly and disgraceful”.[32] In May 2021, the IRR also fired Jeremy.[33]
In March 2019, the IRR was criticized for working with columnistDavid Bullard after they announced that they were hosting an event with him atStellenbosch University.[34] The IRR went on to hire Bullard as a columnist for their online publicationThe Daily Friend. Bullard had previously attracted controversy for referring to black people as "darkies".[35] The IRR's head of media Michael Morris defended the decision to platform Bullard, citing freedom of speech. Morris said "It takes courage to be willing to be offended and reply with reason. That is what freedom means. Outlawing what might offend us only enfeebles and disables reason itself."[36]
In March 2020, David Bullard was fired from the IRR after he made a tweet defending the use of the racial slurkaffir.[37]
In March 2019, the IRR called on lobby groupAfriForum to retract a documentary that "seemingly sanitises the motives behind Apartheid and the brutality of its practices".[38] When asked why AfriForum was listed as a funder in the IRR's 2015 and 2016 annual reports, as well as on their website, IRR CEO Frans Cronje stated "AfriForum have never funded the IRR. Someone put their name under funders in some of our documents and website which I only discovered once it was reported in the media."[39]
On 1 June 2020, Cronje was forced to distance the IRR from comments made by one of its council members. IRR council member Unathi Kwaza tweeted: "Black people were better off under apartheid. It's time we admit this - at least those of us with honour." Cronje responded in a statement that "The broader IRR has always harboured a diversity of opinion among its structures and staff. However, the tweeted comment that apartheid was better than democracy does not accord with the position of the organisation or that of the great majority, almost without exception, of staff and office-bearers.".[40]
| No.[41] | Image | Presidents | Term of office | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charles Templeman Loram | 1930-1931 | ||
| 2 | Edgar Harry Brookes | 1931-1933 | ||
| 3 | Reinhold Friedrich Alfred Hoernlé | 1933-1943 | ||
| 4 | Maurice Webb | 1943-1945 | ||
| 5 | Edgar Harry Brookes | 1945-1948 | ||
| 6 |  | Agnes Winifred Hoernlé | 1948-1950 | |
| 7 | John David Rheinallt Jones | 1950-1953 | ||
| 8 | Ellen Hellmann | 1953-1955 | ||
| 9 | Leo Marquard [af] | 1955-1957 | ||
| 10 | Johannes Reyneke | 1957-1958 | ||
| 11 | Donald Barkly Molteno | 1958-1960 | ||
| 12 | Edgar Harry Brookes | 1960-1961 | ||
| 13 | Oliver Deneys Schreiner | 1961-1963 | Retired judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa known for his liberal jurisprudence. | |
| 12 | Denis Eugene Hurley | 1963-1965 | Roman CatholicArchbishop of Durban and opponent of Apartheid. | |
| 13 | Ernst Gideon Malherbe | 1965-1967 | Educator and principal of theUniversity of Natal.[42] | |
| 14 | Leo Marquard | 1967-1968 | ||
| 15 | ID MacCrone | 1968-1969 | Professor of Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand.[43] | |
| 16 | Sheila van der Horst | 1969-1971 | ||
| 17 |  | William Frederick Nkomo &Duchesne Cowley Grice | 1971-1973 | Nkomo was a doctor and activist who co-founded theANC Youth League, and Grice was a Durban attorney. |
| 18 | Duchesne Cowley Grice | 1972-1973 | ||
| 19 | Bernard Friedman | 1973-1975 | Doctor and co-founder of theProgressive Party. | |
| 20 | Ezekiel Mahabane | 1975-1977 | ||
| 21 | Christopher John Robert Dugard | 1977-1979 | Professor of International Law. | |
| 22 | René de Villiers | 1979-1980 | Journalist and Progressive Party MP.[44] | |
| 23 | Franz Auerbach | 1980-1983 | Educator and founder of Jews for Social Justice.[45] | |
| 24 | Lawrence Schlemmer | 1983-1985 | Professor of Social Sciences, University of Natal, and founder of the Centre for Social and Development Studies.[46] | |
| 25 | Stuart John Saunders | 1985-1987 | Medical researcher and Vice-Chancellor of theUniversity of Cape Town.[47] | |
| 26 | Mmutlanyane Stanley Mogoba | 1987-1989 | Methodist minister and President of thePan Africanist Congress. | |
| 27 | Helen Suzman | 1989-1992 | Progressive Party MP. | |
| 28 | William D (Bill) Wilson | 1992-1994 | ||
| 29 | Hermann Giliomee | 1994-1996 | Historian. | |
| 30 | Themba Sono | 1996-2003 | Academic and former President of theSouth African Student Organisation.[48] | |
| 31 | Elwyn Jenkins | 2003-2007 | Educator and principal of theMamelodi Campus ofVista University.[49] | |
| 32 | Sipho Seepe | 2007-2009 | Professor,University of Zululand. | |
| 33 | Jonathan Jansen | 2009-2020 | Professor of Education,University of Stellenbosch.[50] | |
| 34 | Russell Lamberti | 2020-2024 | Economist.[51] | |
| 35 | Mark Oppenheimer | 2024-Present | Advocate of the High Court of South Africa. |
| No.[52] | Image | Presidents | Term of office | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John David Rheinallt Jones | 1930-1947 | 1930-1944 as Adviser, thereafter Director.[18]: 6 | |
| 2 | Quinton Alexander Whyte | 1947-1970 | Director | |
| 3 | Frederick Johannes van Wyk | 1970-1979 | Director | |
| 4 | John Charles Rees | 1979-1983[1]: 112 | Director Said to have changed the IRR's focus from pure research to community participation.[53] | |
| 5 | John Kane-Berman | 1983-2014 | Chief Executive Officer | |
| 6 | Dr Frans Cronje | 2014-2021 | Chief Executive Officer | |
| 7 | Dr John Endres | 2021-Present | Chief Executive Officer |
The IRR has received donations and funds from:[57]
The IRR also claims to receive significantcrowdfunding through its Friends Initiative, having recorded some 9,537 active "friends" at the end of 2023 with an average donation of R74.39 ($4.11).[24]: 31
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)The IRR is proud to have been funding the education of thousands of South Africans, regardless of race, since 1935, among them such notable figures as Nelson Mandela
Basic physics shows that CO2, a weak greenhouse gas, can never have an important effect on temperatures.
"The IRR actively sought out this project by approaching groups that were likely to be negatively affected and asking for funding to do this research," media and public affairs officer Kelebogile Leepile told Fin24.
Despite having little political power, being numerical minorities and having historically often been victims of racism themselves, Americans of Asian extraction perform disproportionately well in that society.
AfriForum have never funded the IRR. Someone put their name under funders in some of our documents and website which I only discovered once it was reported in the media.
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