South Africa’s racial classification in the spotlight

In a bid to understand the continued use of apartheid-era racial classification across laws and institutions in South Africa, the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) will this week meet with the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).

“Racial classification is a damning stain on the country’s history. This is defined by many as the bedrock of the racist apartheid regime and yet continues to permeate many of our democratic institutions in the present day,” said Makone Maja, IRR campaign manager.

“These arbitrary categories ‘black’, ‘white’, ‘coloured’, and ‘Indian’ were manufactured during apartheid and pioneered primarily through the since-repealed Population Registration Act, and subsequently through the Group Areas and Bantu Homelands Citizenship Acts, among others.

“These laws dictated to people what their race was based on frivolously defined groups, and were used to enforce and administer discrimination, prejudice, hate and ignorance.

“As a product of Section 9 of the Constitution, the SAHRC is best suited to providing clarity on the reasons for the sustained dependence on racial classification in many of our laws and institutions, and providing direction on the future of these provisions,” said Maja.

She said there is an alarming trend where democratic South Africa has reversed ‘the progress made in outlawing racialisation and the racist institutions adopted from apartheid’.

“Simply put, there have never been as many race-based laws, regulations and directives in South African history as today, not even at the peak of apartheid. And unfortunately, this could mean that some South Africans have only become more racially conscious, instead of less.

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