South African Institute of Race Relations
{{Short description|Organisation for socioeconomic policy and research in South Africa}}
{{Hatnote| This article is about the South African research institute, for the British think tank see Institute of Race Relations (United Kingdom)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Use South African English|date=September 2012}}
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| abbreviation = IRR
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| formation = {{start date and age|1929}}
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| registration_id = 1937/010068/08
| status = Non-profit, Public Benefit Organisation
| purpose = Public policy advocacy
| headquarters = 222 Smit Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
| location = South Africa
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| leader_title = Chief Executive Officer
| leader_name = John Endres
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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,{{Cite book |last=Byrne |first=Errol |title=The First Liberal ~ Rheinallt Jones |publisher=Angel Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-620-14291-X |location=Johannesburg}}{{Rp||page=25}} making the Institute "one of the oldest liberal institutions in the country".{{cite news | first=Julie | last=Hearn | title=Aiding democracy? Donors and civil society in South Africa | work=Third World Quarterly | volume=21 | issue=5 | date=1 October 2000 | page=827 }}
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.{{cite web|url=https://irr.org.za/about-us/about-us |title=About Us — Institute Of Race Relations |publisher=Irr.org.za |date= |accessdate=2021-11-19}} 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.{{Cite journal |last=Rich |first=Paul |date=1981 |title=The South African institute of race relations and the debate on race relations, 1929-1958 |url=https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/4112/ |journal=Collected Seminar Papers. Institute of Commonwealth Studies |language=en |volume=28 |pages=77–90 |issn=0076-0773}}{{Rp||page=|pages=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."{{Cite book |last=Carter |first=Gwendolen M. |title=The Politics of Inequality: South Africa Since 1948 |publisher=Thames and Hudson |year=1958 |location=London}}{{Rp||page=336|pages=}} In more recent years the IRR and its work has also been variously labelled as right-wing (for instance by the academic Roger Southall{{Cite web |title=LETTER: IRR now a right-wing agitator |url=https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/letters/2021-06-24-letter-irr-now-a-right-wing-agitator/ |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=BusinessLIVE |language=en-ZA}} and former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba{{Cite web |title=Herman Mashaba: 'Far right-wing' IRR has done 'too much damage' to the DA |url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2019-10-08-herman-mashaba-far-right-wing-irr-has-done-too-much-damage-to-the-da/ |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=TimesLIVE |language=en-ZA}}), conservative (in a New Frame editorial{{Cite web |last=Frame |first=By: New |last2=Editorial |date=2019-10-25 |title=Will the DA become an anglicised FF+? |url=https://www.newframe.com/will-the-da-become-an-anglicised-ff/ |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=New Frame}} and by NEHAWU Western Cape secretary Luthando Nogcinisa{{Cite web |title=ANC battles unholy alliance |url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2014-01-29-anc-battles-unholy-alliance/ |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=TimesLIVE |language=en-ZA}}), and reactionary (by former NUMSA spokesperson Irvin Jim{{Cite web |title=Numsa: SAIRR hostile towards ANC |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/numsa-sairr-hostile-towards-anc-20110126 |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}), although it describes itself as adhering to classical liberalism.{{Cite web |last=Endres |first=John |title=RIGHT OF REPLY {{!}} John Endres: The IRR holds the liberal line against the left |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/opinions/columnists/guestcolumn/right-of-reply-john-endres-the-irr-holds-the-liberal-line-against-the-left-20210921 |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Corrigan |first=Terence |date=2021-09-07 |title=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 |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-09-07-the-institute-of-race-relations-is-on-the-same-long-hard-path-as-it-always-was-the-path-of-classical-liberalism/ |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=Daily Maverick |language=en}}
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.{{Cite book |last=Brits |first=JP |title=Op die Vooraand van Apartheid: Die Rassevraagstuk en die Blanke Politiek in Suid-Afrika, 1939-1948 |publisher=University of South Africa |year=1994 |isbn=086981835X |location=Pretoria}}{{Rp||page=71|pages=}}
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.{{Rp||page=47|pages=}}
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.{{Cite journal |last=Hughes |first=Tim |date=1994 |title=Political liberalism in South Africa in the 1980s and the formation of the Democratic Party |url=https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/3781?show=full}}{{Rp||page=26|pages=}} In 1996, the academic Hugh Corder, and later critic,{{Cite web |title=OPEN LETTER {{!}} 'We are concerned about the direction the IRR is taking' |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/opinions/letters/open-letter-we-are-concerned-about-the-direction-the-irr-is-taking-20210919 |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=News24 |language=en-US}} described the IRR as an important “national asset.”{{Cite book |last=Corder |first=Hugh |title=Watchdogs or Hypocrites? The Amazing Debate on South African Liberals and Liberalism |publisher=Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung |year=1997 |isbn=0-9584163-7-0 |editor-last=Husemeyer |editor-first=Libby |location=Johannesburg |chapter=Shrill and overstated}}{{Rp||page=133|pages=}}
History
= Inspiration and precursors =
Charles Templeman Loram and Maurice Evans established the Native Affairs Reform Association in Natal in 1910. The association consisted only of whites.{{Rp||page=21|pages=}} Loram was Chief Inspector of Native Education in Natal from 1917 to 1920, when he was appointed as a member of the South African government's Native Affairs Commission in 1920.{{Cite book |last=Brookes |first=Edgar Harry |title=The History of Native Policy in South Africa from 1830 to the Present Day |publisher=Nasionale Pers |year=1924 |location=Cape Town}}{{Rp||page=307|pages=}}
In 1921, Thomas Jesse Jones of the Phelps Stokes Fund and James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey visited South Africa, bringing with them the idea of the “inter-racial commissions” spearheaded by Will Winton Alexander in the Deep South of the United States. Alexander's Commission 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, in Johannesburg,{{Rp||page=21|pages=}} and is regarded as a founder of the Joint Council movement.{{Rp||page=26|pages=}}
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 prominent Dutch 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.{{Rp||page=48|pages=}}
The Joint Councils hosted National European African Conferences in 1924, 1929, and 1933, and one European and Coloured Conference in 1933.{{Rp||page=22|pages=}}
= Founding =
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 in Berea, Johannesburg. It was Ascension 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 the University of Fort Hare), JH Nicholson (Mayor of Durban), and JG van der Horst.{{Rp||page=25|pages=}} Loram was chairman, Pim treasurer, and Jones secretary.{{Cite book |last=Hellmann |first=Ellen |title=The South African Institute of Race Relations 1929-1979: A Short History |publisher=South African Institute of Race Relations |year=1979 |isbn=0869821792 |location=Johannesburg}}{{Rp||page=6|pages=}} According to Colin de Berri Webb the founders also included Alfred Hoernlé and Leo Marquard [af].{{Cite journal |last=Webb |first=Colin de Berri |date=1979 |title=Edgar Harry Brookes 1897-1979 |url=https://natalia.org.za/Files/9/Natalia%20v9%20obituaries%20%20Brookes.pdf |journal=Natalia |volume=9 |pages=39–42}}{{Rp||page=40|pages=}} Michael Morris additionally writes that Thomas W Mackenzie, editor of The Friend newspaper of Bloemfontein, was present at the founding.{{Cite web |title=MICHAEL MORRIS: Institute of Race Relations’ endurance a testament to founders’ |url=https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/columnists/2019-05-06-michael-morris-institute-of-race-relations-endurance-a-testament-to-founders/ |access-date=2023-11-10 |website=BusinessLIVE |language=en-ZA}} 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.”{{Cite web |last=Haines |first=Richard John |title=The Politics of Philanthropy and Race Relations: The Joint Councils of South Africa, c.1920-1955 |url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33814/1/11010604.pdf |website=SOAS Research Online}}{{Rp||page=201|pages=}}
= Bursary program =
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.{{Cite web |title=SAIRR wins American Chamber of Commerce Leadership Award for 2013 {{!}} WHAM MEDIA |url=http://whammedia.co.za/sairr-wins-american-chamber-of-commerce-leadership-award-for-2013/ |access-date=2023-11-10 |language=en-ZA}} Nelson Mandela was awarded a bursary from the IRR in 1947 to complete his legal studies.{{cite web |title=Bursaries |url=https://irr.org.za/bursaries |website=South African Institute of Race Relations |language=en-gb |quote=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}}
The program was discontinued on 31 December 2023.{{Rp||page=49|pages=}}
Controversies
In June 2013, the IRR published a policy bulletin {{cite web |title=Climate change Science and the climate change scare|url=https://irr.org.za/reports/atLiberty/files/liberty-2013-climate-change-science-and-the-climate-change-scare |access-date=5 May 2023|language=en-gb |quote="Basic physics shows that CO2, a weak greenhouse gas, can never have an important effect on temperatures."}} that challenged the concept of anthropogenic climate change, which gained significant media traction. The organisation has consistently advocated a position of climate change denial, stating in a 2023 Parliamentary stakeholder engagement on the proposed climate change bill that the IPCC is "a political advocacy group with a powerful vested interest in spreading climate fear"{{cite web | title=Climate Change Bill: public hearings in SA Parliament, May 2023|url=https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/36928/}}
In 2016, the IRR published a study whose results were critical towards South Africa's proposed Sugar Sweetened Beverage tax. Upon enquiry by journalists, it was revealed that the study was funded by Coca-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".{{cite web |title=The IRR: Dissection of a media slur campaign|url=https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/the-irr-dissection-of-a-media-slur-campaign |website=www.politicsweb.co.za |access-date=5 May 2021}} 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.{{cite web |title=Coca-Cola is funding research against South Africa's proposed Sugar Tax |url=https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/146181/coca-cola-is-funding-research-against-south-africas-proposed-sugar-tax/ |website=BusinessTech |access-date=5 May 2021 |date=7 December 2016 |quote=“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.}}
In December 2018, the IRR announced that it would be working with controversial cartoonist, Jeremy Talfer Nell, known as Jerm after he was fired by the civic organisation Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse for publishing a cartoon that discussed the link between race and IQ.{{cite web |title=OUTA's axing of Jerm cowardly and disgraceful - IRR - DOCUMENTS {{!}} Politicsweb |url=https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/outas-axing-of-jerm-cowardly-and-disgraceful--irr |website=www.politicsweb.co.za |access-date=20 April 2021}} 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”.{{cite web |title=Why We Are Happy For Jerm To Draw For Us |url=https://irr.org.za/media/why-we-are-happy-for-jerm-to-draw-for-us-rational-standard |website=South African Institute of Race Relations |access-date=5 May 2021 |language=en-gb |quote=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.}} In May 2021, the IRR also fired Jeremy.{{cite web |title=New Cartoonist Appointed at The Daily Friend |url=https://irr.org.za/newsletters/tdf-new-cartoonist.pdf |access-date=23 December 2022 |date=25 May 2021}}
In March 2019, the IRR was criticized for working with columnist David Bullard after they announced that they were hosting an event with him at Stellenbosch University.{{cite web |last1=Friedman |first1=Daniel |title=Institute of Race Relations slammed for inviting 'racist' David Bullard to speak |url=https://citizen.co.za/news/2097509/institute-of-race-relations-slammed-for-inviting-racist-david-bullard-to-speak/ |website=The Citizen |access-date=20 April 2021 |language=en |date=8 March 2019}} The IRR went on to hire Bullard as a columnist for their online publication The Daily Friend. Bullard had previously attracted controversy for referring to black people as "darkies".{{cite web |title='Professor' David Bullard encourages 'darkies' to destroy Wits |url=https://citizen.co.za/news/news-eish/1291239/professor-david-bullard-encourages-darkies-to-destroy-wits/ |website=The Citizen |access-date=20 April 2021 |language=en |date=20 September 2016}} 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."{{cite web |last1=Morris |first1=Michael |title=Ideas should be heard, whether Bullard's or Mngxitama's - IRR |url=https://citizen.co.za/news/opinion/opinion-columns/2099008/ideas-should-be-heard-whether-bullards-or-mngxitamas-irr/ |website=The Citizen |access-date=20 April 2021 |language=en |date=11 March 2019}}
In March 2020, David Bullard was fired from the IRR after he made a tweet defending the use of the racial slur kaffir.{{cite web |title=Columnist David Bullard axed over K-word tweet |url=https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-05-28-columnist-david-bullard-axed-over-k-word-tweet/ |website=SowetanLIVE |access-date=20 April 2021 |language=en-ZA}}
In March 2019, the IRR called on lobby group AfriForum to retract a documentary that "seemingly sanitises the motives behind Apartheid and the brutality of its practices".{{cite web |title=No grounds for sanitising Apartheid's tragic and callous history |url=https://irr.org.za/media/19-12-march-press-release-apartheid-12-03-19.pdf |website=South African Institute of Race Relations |access-date=5 May 2021}} 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."{{cite web |last1=du Toit |first1=Pieter |title='Verwoerd' documentary must be retracted, urges IRR, AfriForum says 'nee wat' |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/SouthAfrica/News/verwoerd-documentary-must-retracted-urges-irr-afriforum-says-neewat-20190313 |website=News24 |access-date=5 May 2021 |date=13 March 2019 |quote=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.}}
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.".{{cite web |last1=Mabuza |first1=Ernest |title=No, black South Africans were not better off under apartheid: IRR |url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-06-01-no-black-south-africans-were-not-better-off-under-apartheid-irr/ |website=TimesLIVE |access-date=20 April 2021 |language=en-ZA |date=1 June 2020}}
Leadership
= Presidents<ref>{{cite web |title=83rd Annual Report |url=https://irr.org.za/about-us/annual-report/2012-2013-annual-report.18jun13.pdf |website=South African Institute of Race Relations |publisher=South African Institute of Race Relations |access-date=20 December 2023}}</ref> =
= Chief executives<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our History |url=https://irr.org.za/about-us/history |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Institute of Race Relations |language=en-us}}</ref> =
| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+ !{{Abbr|No.|Number}} !Image !Presidents !Term of office !Notes | |
| 1
| |John David Rheinallt Jones |1930-1947 | page=6|pages=}} |
| 2
| |Quinton Alexander Whyte |1947-1970 |Director | |
| 3
| |Frederick Johannes van Wyk |1970-1979 |Director | |
| 4
| |John Charles Rees | page=112|pages=}}
|Director Said to have changed the IRR's focus from pure research to community participation.{{Cite news |last=Pogrund |first=Benjamin |date=20 October 1994 |title=Obituary: John Rees |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-john-rees-1443937.html |work=The Independent}} |
| 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 |
Other notable people
- Gwen Ngwenya – chief operating officer{{Cite web |last=Hogg |first=Alec |date=February 20, 2018 |title=Shifting gears: IRR's Gwen Ngwenya to take up post in DA's political arena |url=https://www.biznews.com/briefs/2018/02/20/irr-gwen-ngwenya-da-politics |access-date=15 July 2024 |website=BizNews}}
- Peter Ralph Randall – assistant director
- Gareth van Onselen – head of politics and governance{{Cite web |date=2019-10-09 |title=Former DA and IRR employee slams both, says Maimane is fuelling a 'race war' |url=https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/politics/former-da-and-irr-employee-slams-both-says-maimane-is-fuelling-a-race-war/ |access-date=2024-06-13 |website=The Citizen |language=en}}
- Helen Zille – senior policy fellow{{Cite web |date=2019-07-28 |title=Helen Zille joins Institute for Race Relations |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-07-28-helen-zille-joins-institute-for-race-relations/ |access-date=2024-07-16 |website=Daily Maverick |language=en}}
Sponsors and donors
The IRR has received donations and funds from:{{Cite web |title=Sponsors and Donors |url=https://irr.org.za/about-us/sponsors-and-donors |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=Institute of Race Relations |language=en-us}}
- Anglo American Chairman’s Fund
- Friedrich Naumann Foundation
- Graham McIntosh
- Haggie Charitable Trust
- Jack Silson Charitable Trust
- Johannes van der Horst Trust
- Julian Ogilvie Thompson
- Lombard Insurance Company
- Millennium Trust
The IRR also claims to receive significant crowdfunding 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).{{Cite web |title=94th Annual Report |url=https://irr.org.za/about-us/annual-report/94th-annual-report-2023-27-05-2024.pdf/view |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Institute of Race Relations |language=en-us}}{{Rp||page=31|pages=}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.sairr.org.za/ South African Institute of Race Relations]
{{Liberalism in South Africa}}
{{Greater Johannesburg|pol}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:1929 establishments in South Africa
Category:Think tanks based in South Africa
Category:Foundations based in South Africa
Category:Research institutes established in 1929
Category:Civic and political organisations based in Johannesburg