Fact-Check: News24’s Misleading Claims on South Africa’s 142 Race Based Laws

On May 22, 2025, News24 published an article claiming South Africa does not have 142 racist laws, countering the Index of Race Law by the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR).

The IRR’s index, however, meticulously documents statutes, regulations, and court judgments perpetuating racial discrimination, rooted in historical laws like the 1950 Population Registration Act.

News24 argues these laws promote inclusion and redress historical disadvantages, but this framing is misleading.

Many listed laws, as highlighted by Martin van Staden on X, enforce racial classifications, undermining the Constitution’s non-racialism principle established in 1996.

The IRR’s work, dating back to 1978, shows a consistent pattern of legislated racialism, even post-apartheid.

News24’s reliance on constitutional justifications fails to address the ethical and practical issues of race-based laws, validating the IRR’s concerns.

Each Act of Parliament they check has its racial provision usefully cited.

That they use other race laws (the Constitution and Constitutional Court judgments) to try playing a semantic game is amusing, but ultimately unsuccessful. pic.twitter.com/fzceOmg6vY

— Martin van Staden (@Martin_ASFL) May 23, 2025

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