All race-based criteria are bad for SA, especially the poor
14 November 2023
Confusion this week over the exact details of agricultural export permits for South Africa’s farming sector – prompting claims that criticism of the regulations was sensational, false, misleading and irresponsible – obscures the much more fundamental risk to South Africa’s economic interests: race-based policy.
The IRR has long argued that the most irresponsible posture to adopt on any and all race-based policy introduced since 1994 is one of acquiescence and appeasement, precisely because, first, racial policy is antithetical to the country’s constitutional commitment to non-racialism, second, it counts as an impediment to investment and economic growth, and, third, it has proved demonstrably ineffective either in empowering or in improving the lives of the poor, whose numbers have only grown in conditions of mounting economic distress.
In this setting, there is nothing benign about flawed policy of this nature.
The fuss arose over weekend news reports, details of which gained international attention in a report by the respected Bloomberg news agency, whose story ran under the headline “South Africa’s ‘Too White’ Farms May Lose EU, UK Access”.