Organisation for socioeconomic policy and research in South Africa
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
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.[1]: 21 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.[17]: 307
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,[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 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.[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
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.[1]: 25 Loram was chairman, Pim treasurer, and Jones secretary.[18]: 6 According to Colin de Berri Webb the founders also included Alfred Hoernlé and Leo Marquard [af].[19]: 40 Michael Morris additionally writes that Thomas W Mackenzie, editor of The Friend newspaper of Bloemfontein, 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
Bursary program
The IRR has run a bursary scheme since 1935, 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]
Controversies
In June 2013, the IRR published a policy bulletin [24] 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"[25]
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".[26] 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.[27]
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.[28] The IRR defended their decision to hire Jerm 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 Jerm's firing “cowardly and disgraceful”.[29] In May 2021, the IRR also fired Jerm.[30]
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.[31] 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".[32] 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."[33]
In March 2020, David Bullard was fired from the IRR after he made a tweet defending the use of the racial slur kaffir.[34]
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".[35] 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."[36]
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.".[37]
