(Rand Daily Mail) – The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) on Monday said it believes in “creating a policy environment in which any child born in SA might realistically aspire to reach middle class standard of living”.
IRR CEO Dr Frans Cronjé said in a statement that “a child might aspire to a middle-class standard of living should be seen as moral as well as a social‚ economic‚ and political imperative”.
This follows the release of an IRR report last week warning that the “considerable growth in the black middle class” would be curtailed by the “depressed domestic economic environment” in the country. However, the report also noted that the black middle class‚ while still small‚ “has approached the size of the white middle class”.
It “warned that as the first-generation middle class‚ the black middle class was very vulnerable to losing their status as a result of developments such as a sharp economic downturn or a period of rapidly rising interest rates”. The IRR said that “the civil service could not be extended as a black middle class incubator – a role it has played quite successfully over the past 20 years”‚ and any significant future “expansion would depend on SA securing an economic growth turnaround”.
CronjĂ© said the apartheid-era government denied middle class “aspirations to a majority of the country’s people”. And while “The post-1994 government has done better … too many areas of policy still undermine the educational outcomes‚ entrepreneurship‚ and investment-driven growth that is so important to unlocking access to the middle classes.”
