Intolerance and racism have shift to racial exclusivity, racial intolerance and intra-racism and the envisaged non-racist society has not yet been attained, a report released by the SA Human Rights Commission on Thursday said.

Racist conduct at the University of the Free State, the use of terms in the repealed Group Areas Act to exclude potential tenants, and a racist cellphone text message to a domestic worker are signs that legislation had done little to eliminate racism.

Blatant racism appeared to be on the increase, and legislation seemed to be focusing on institutionalised racism, without taking into account subliminal racism, researchers found.

Evidence of racial violence in schools, and racial segregation at universities showed little success in fostering racial integration, they wrote.

Failure to implement the Equality Act allowed people to continue practising racism and the previously disadvantaged did not appear to be making adequate use of the Equality Courts.

"The truth of the matter is that until the legislative framework has enforced the practice of social responsibility there will be exploitation of the most vulnerable racial groups," researchers noted.

Sapa