EDITOR’S NOTE: Coke snorts, irr squirms
The institute’s latest faux pas, this time failing to reveal its pro-sugar study was funded by Coke, raises even more awkward questions
There were uncomfortable echoes of the tobacco industry last week when it emerged that the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) had produced an antisugar-tax research paper with cash from the big kahuna of sugar, Coca-Cola — and kept this vital fact from the public. The IRR’s research, titled "A Stealth Tax, not a Health Tax", lambasts government for its plan to levy a 20% tax on sugary drinks, arguing this is based on assumptions "unlikely to hold true in the real world". Last week, Fin24 looked behind the façade and revealed that none other than Coca-Cola itself had funded the study. "The IRR used the Coke-funded paper to engage with treasury about the economic impact a sugary tax will have in SA," it said. Disingenuously, when caught out, IRR COO Gwen Ngwenya said Fin24 was engaging in a "smear campaign to deflect attention from the IRR’s analysis". It was an act of stunning chutzpah, illustrating the depths to which the IRR, an organisation with a proud 87-year history of defying t...
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