The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) on Monday said it believes in “creating a policy environment in which any child born in South Africa might realistically aspire to reach middle class standard of living”. “That a child might aspire to a middle class standard of living should be seen as moral as well as a social‚ economic‚ and political imperative‚” IRR CEO Dr Frans Cronjé said in a statement.This follows the release of an IRR report last week that suggests that the “considerable growth in the black middle class” would be curtailed by the “depressed domestic economic environment” in the country.The black middle class‚ the report said‚ while still small‚ “has approached the size of the white middle class”.The report “warned that as the first-generation middle class‚ the black middle class was very vulnerable to losing their status as a result of developments such as a sharp economic downturn or a period of rapidly rising interest rates”.The IRR said that “the civil service could not be extended as a black middle class incubator – a role it has played quite successfully over the past 20 years”‚ and any significant future “expansion would depend on South Africa securing an economic growth turnaround”.Cronjé said the apartheid-era government denied middle class “aspirations to a majority of the country's people”.“The post-1994 government has done better but too many areas of policy still undermine the educational outcomes‚ entrepreneurship‚ and investment driven growth that is so important to unlocking access to the middle classes.”..