The South African Institute of Race Relations said its transformation audit had revealed that there had been significant racial transformation of the South African workplace, asset ownership and state institutions.
And, according to a statement on Monday, the "situation continues to improve."
The IRR said that data from the Commission for Employment Equity showed that the proportion of top managers who are black had increased from 12.7% in 2000 to 27.6% in 2015.
The Institute's Chief Operating Officer, Gwen Ngwenya, said the proportion of senior managers who are black had increased to 38.8% in 2015.
"Stock market ownership data reveals that levels of black African ownership increased from 14.9% in 2000 to 23% in 2013. White ownership levels have fallen by more than half to a level below that of black Africans, from 71.4% in 2000 to 22% in 2013," she said.
"84.1 % of people who have homes that are paid in full are African and 7.4% are white, "the extent of transformation in home ownership data is largely due to black Africans who have received free or subsidised housing from the State," the SAIIR said.
According to the IRR "those advocating for an acceleration in racial transformation argue that 80.7% of people in the country are black African and this is the figure used as a point of reference to which supporters of racial representation suggest South Africa should aspire to, "transformation indicators, e.g. levels of asset ownership and employment in management, if benchmarked against that percentage fall dramatically short."
However, the Institute argued that racial transformation should be benchmarked against the "economically active and qualified population rather than the total population of black Africans."
"It is the economically active and highly qualified cohort who are able to be absorbed into skilled employment and higher echelons of management and leadership."
According to the IRR, black African people account for 77.7% of the economically active population and for 70.7% of the population with a matric qualification. The numbers come down even further when it comes to the population with a post-school qualification.
"Here, black Africans account for 51.4% of all people with a post-school qualification. This latter figure is seldom cited in the racial transformation debate even though it is a more realistic benchmark against which employment equity indicators should be judged. Just 26% of black African children (who sat for the mathematics exam in 2015) obtained 40% or above. The figure for white children is 84.9%. It is not clear how continuing to enforce ever more stringent racial equity and other targets in the economy will overcome the problem of poorly performing schools."
According to Ngwenya, "education levels provide the transformation ceiling."
"Stricter demographic targets in the absence of sufficient advances in education will become a policy that will strangle South Africa's economic growth rate. Transformation policy for employers must continue to be informed by the available skilled population and not the total demographic distribution of racial groups," she said.
(Statement: SAIIR)
