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Think tank the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) – recently labelled a “right-wing” organisation by both former Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane and outgoing Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba following the organisation launching a campaign to “save the opposition”, which some believe may have played a role in both their exits from the DA – has now released a new campaign called “#CommonSense”.
The institute said their campaign aimed to “voice the clear priorities of South Africans,” which they say, according to their data, includes the abandonment of race quotes in sport or race-based policies in business, and for politicians to stop using “talk of racism and colonialism as excuses for their own failures”.
According to a press release from the IRR, their data shows that:
The campaign argues that the concerns of ordinary South Africans, as put forward by their think tank, should form the basis of government’s decisions.
“If those in or seeking power are willing to actually listen to the views of ordinary South Africans, real redress and progress for all is possible,” says the press release, which can be read in full here.
The institute has been accused of releasing biased polls, which political analyst Sinethemba Zonke described as asking “questions slanted so they would get the answers they wanted”.
Most recently, one of their polls, which was reported as concluding that white South Africans were more often the victims of racism than their black counterparts, received a strong reaction online.
READ MORE: IRR is ‘right wing’ and I won’t let them treat me like a ‘domestic worker’ – Maimane
It was slated as a “silly and simplistic poll on a serious and complex issue” and was accused of having “no supporting stats”, and for creating questions “to give a narrow outcome favourable to the IRR position” – although former IRR employee Gwen Ngwenya argued that the backlash was caused by the way the poll was reported on by TimesLive.
It has been reported that previous polls on public opinion regarding land reform and employment equity conducted by the IRR have also been questioned.
The institute has also been criticised for its close working relationship with and accepting of funding from lobby group AfriForum, considered by some to be a right-wing organisation, and for its inviting disgraced columnist David Bullard – who was fired from the Sunday Times for a column which was slammed for racism, as their only speaker at an event in Stellenbosch on what “the future really holds for South Africa”.
(Compiled by Daniel Friedman.)
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