IRR welcomes engagement with SAHRC on race classification
25 October 2024
The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) looks forward to future engagements with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on the critical subject of race classifications, after a very productive discussion between senior members of the Commission and the Institute this week.
The meeting arose from a request in August for a discussion with the SAHRC, based on questions about South Africa’s continuing reliance on racial classification.
Says IRR campaign manager Makone Maja: “Our questions to the SAHRC dealt specifically with the legality of race categories and whether the Commission believes the government should − as its predecessors did under apartheid, chiefly through the Population Registration Act − dictate to people what race they can and cannot identify as.”
Says Maja: “It emerged that there is much common ground between the IRR and SAHRC, particularly on the position that the government should prioritise ending poverty not just as an economic necessity but as a moral imperative. The Institute’s proposed solutions remain firmly non-racial, based on the conviction that economic factors would be more effective at targeting poverty and at radically making the economy accessible to the marginalised and disadvantaged.”