Dr Anthea Jeffery, Head of Policy Research for the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), presented an online media briefing on her latest report, The 10-Year Lockdown.

The report argues that the easing of South Africa’s stringent Covid-19 lockdown this week occurs against the background of an unacknowledged policy ‘lockdown’ for at least the last ten years, characterised by ‘radical economic transformation’ policies aimed at changing the ownership, control, and very structure of the economy.

The report warns that the ruling African National Congress “will use the economic devastation triggered by the lengthy lockdown to push for the rapid adoption of these measures as part of ‘reconstruction’ and the ‘radical economic transformation’ underpinning this process”.