South Africa: Still the World’s Most Race-Regulated Country?
Why the G20 in Johannesburg is being greeted with billboards, boycotts, and a 31-year-old promise that never materialised
As South Africa hosts the G20 Summit in Johannesburg on 22-23 November 2025, the event has been overshadowed by two high-profile disputes over race policy.
First, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a full boycott by U.S. officials, declaring on Truth Social that holding the G20 in South Africa was “a total disgrace” because of alleged government-sponsored discrimination against Afrikaners, including claims of killings and land confiscations.
Second, and directly tied to the same debate, the Afrikaner trade union Solidarity in November 2025 erected more than 30 digital billboards and banners along key G20 routes proclaiming South Africa “the most race-regulated country in the world”.
Johannesburg authorities removed most of them within hours, citing lack of permits. Solidarity immediately obtained an urgent interim interdict from the High Court, replaced the boards, and—in protest—escalated by erecting over 50 additional banners across Gauteng highways and airport approaches. Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi publicly welcomed the initial removals as a defeat of “racism” and labelled Solidarity members “racists” on X, while the union accused him of censorship and incitement. Meanwhile, the South African Presidency dismissed the campaign as the work of a “tiny right-wing minority” intent on embarrassing the nation.
With regards to race laws, South Africa currently has 142 pieces of national legislation that explicitly or implicitly make race a legal criterion for rights, benefits, obligations or penalties. This is more than existed at the height of apartheid (123 in 1980), according to the Institute of Race Relations’ continuously updated Index of Race Law, last revised on 11 June 2025. Of the 142, 116 have been enacted since 1994.
The list includes major framework laws such as the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act (2003), the Employment Equity Act (1998), the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (2000) and recent amendments to sector charters (mining, water services, electricity, etc.) that impose minimum Black ownership or management percentages as licensing conditions.
A significant portion of the 142 statutes are, however, outdated or partially obsolete. At least 26 pre-1994 laws still on the statute book contain racial references that have never been repealed or amended (for example, old group-areas extensions, certain pension-fund racial clauses, and remnants of the Population Registration Act repeal process that left stray provisions intact). Critics of the IRR index therefore argue that the “142” figure is inflated because it mixes active transformative legislation with dormant apartheid-era relics.
But what they miss is that even if those 26 are discounted, the post-1994 total remains above 115, which is still higher than apartheid’s peak.
It is also worth noting that the original concept of Black Economic Empowerment was not an ANC invention. The policy framework that later morphed into B-BBEE was first formulated in the early 1990s by Sanlam and a group of Afrikaner business leaders under the banner of the “Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut” and the “Brugbou” (bridge-building) initiative. The explicit aim at the time was to create a class of Black shareholders and entrepreneurs as a buffer against more radical nationalisation demands. Sanlam’s 1993 “National Economic Development and Labour Council” scenarios and its 1996 “Growth for All” document are regarded as the direct intellectual precursors of what became official government policy after 1997.
Internationally, no other democracy comes close to South Africa’s statutory volume of race-conscious laws:
The United States has race preferences in certain federal contracting programmes, but the Supreme Court ended race-based university admissions in 2023 and has never allowed hard quotas.
Brazil reserves 50 % of federal university places for Black and Brown students, but has no economy-wide ownership quotas.
Malaysia’s Bumiputera policy contains ethnic preferences similar in spirit to B-BBEE, yet the number of statutes involved is far lower.
India’s reservation system is extensive, but operates on caste rather than race lines and is constitutionally capped.
Namibia, the only other country that experienced formal apartheid (under South African administration until 1990), adopted affirmative action in employment and education but has no broad ownership quotas and far fewer race-referencing statutes (estimated under 20).
Israel enforces over 65 laws, privileging Jewish citizens through measures like the Nation-State Law, the Law of Return (granting automatic citizenship to Jews but not Palestinian refugees), and land policies that restrict Palestinian access to 80% of state-controlled land.
New Zealand implements affirmative action for Māori in health, education (e.g., quotas in medical and law schools), and reparations for historical land theft to address institutional racism, protected under the Bill of Rights Act, but these targeted measures involve far fewer statutes (under 20) and face ongoing debates about their scope
South Africa therefore retains the dubious distinction of being the country whose statute book references race more frequently, and in more sectors, than any other functioning democracy.
Thirty-one years after the democratic transition that was widely expected to make South Africa a race-neutral society, it simply did not work out that way: race legislation—whether one justifies it as redress or condemns it as renewed classification—remains a daily practical reality for all its citizens. The Solidarity banners may be provocative, but the underlying count of race laws they highlight is factually accurate, even when outdated statutes are stripped out.
References
Institute of Race Relations – Index of Race Law (last updated 11 June 2025)
https://irr.org.za/campaigns/index-of-race-lawSolidarity press statements and court papers, 10–16 November 2025
https://solidariteit.co.za/en/Panyaza Lesufi X posts, 12–14 November 2025
https://x.com/PanyazaLesufiPresidency of South Africa statement on G20 and Solidarity campaign, 14 November 2025
https://www.thepresidency.gov.zaDonald Trump Truth Social post, 11 November 2025
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrumpAgriSA and AfriForum responses to Trump claims, 12–13 November 2025
https://agrisa.co.zaSanlam and AHI historical documents on early BEE concepts (1993–1997)
Referenced in Anton Harber, “Who really invented BEE?” (Business Day, 2018) and IRR reportsCity of Johannesburg vs Solidarity urgent interdict (Case 2025-045187), Gauteng High Court, 14 November 2025
Comparative affirmative-action data:
US: Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard (2023)
Brazil: Law 12.711/2012
Malaysia: New Economic Policy statutes (1971–)
India: Constitution (Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes) Orders
Namibia: Affirmative Action (Employment Equity) Act 29 of 1998 and Labour Act 2007
Why the IRR Says Scrapping B-BBEE Could Fix South Africa’s Economy (Joburg ETC, 27 Aug 2025)
https://www.joburgetc.com/business/irr-scrap-bbbee-south-africa-growth/South Africa’s social transformation policies: raciolinguistic ideologies and neoliberal rhetoric (Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 2019)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17447143.2019.1592177‘Scrap B-BBEE to boost growth’ - IRR (The Citizen, 26 Aug 2025)
https://www.citizen.co.za/news/scrap-b-bbee-to-boost-growth-irr/The Discriminatory Laws Database - Adalah
https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/7771Five ways Israeli law discriminates against Palestinians | Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/7/19/five-ways-israeli-law-discriminates-against-palestiniansIsraeli protests cast light on laws discriminating against Palestinians | Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/27/israeli-protests-cast-light-on-laws-discriminating-against-palestiniansIsrael: Discriminatory Land Policies Hem in Palestinians | Human Rights Watch
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/12/israel-discriminatory-land-policies-hem-palestiniansApartheid Laws in Israel - Together Against Apartheid
https://togetheragainstapartheid.org/apartheid-laws-in-israel/Project MUSE - The Big Question: Is Affirmative Action Necessary to Overcome Institutional Racism?
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/613168/pdfRace and Ethnicity in Public Policy: Does it Work? - Ministry of Social Development
https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj24/24-race-and-ethnicity-in-public-policydoes-it-work-p1-11.htmlEmployment Law: The role of positive discrimination in achieving equality - Issuu
https://issuu.com/hrnz.magazine/docs/2020_hrnz_summer_magazine_issuu/s/11398463Is positive discrimination lawful in New Zealand? - Lane Neave
https://www.laneneave.co.nz/news-events/is-positive-discrimination-lawful-in-new-zealand/
"The policy framework that later morphed into B-BBEE was first formulated in the early 1990s by Sanlam and a group of Afrikaner business leaders under the banner of the “Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut” and the “Brugbou” (bridge-building) initiative."
The problem is neither Sanlam or group of Afrikaner business leader was elected. It was nothing more than another "Secret Brotherhood called the "Afrikaner Broederbond" that crafted this demon called BBBEE to curry favour with the ANC and its alliance partners.