US ups the ante in SA fight in updated State Dept’s Human Rights report

South Africa's human rights landscape is a complex and highly contested terrain, marked by a sharp divergence in perspectives between international observers and the national government. A 2024 U.S. Human Rights Report paints a grim picture of deterioration, citing significant concerns over land rights, violence, and state conduct. Conversely, the South African government has strongly refuted these claims, labeling the report "inaccurate and deeply flawed" and part of a "campaign of misinformation." This briefing examines the key themes of this debate, drawing from the U.S. report, government rebuttals, independent fact-checking, and media coverage.

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Land Expropriation and Historical Injustice

A central flashpoint is the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, which aims to address historical land ownership imbalances. The U.S. report expresses alarm, suggesting the act "could enable the government to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation" and represents a "substantially worrying step towards land expropriation." It frames the law as part of a broader pattern of policies that "dismantle equal opportunity" and fuel violence against "racially disfavored landowners."

The South African government, through its Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), offers a starkly different interpretation. It points out that the United Nations Human Rights Office in Geneva lauded the Act as a "critical step in addressing the country’s racially imbalanced land ownership." DIRCO asserts the law is a constitutionally sound measure to correct the legacy of apartheid and colonialism.

This dispute is rooted in a painful history. An AFP Fact Check article provides crucial context, noting that the 1913 Natives Land Act systematically dispossessed Black South Africans. While repealed in 1991, its effects linger profoundly. As of 2017, white farmers still held 72 percent of commercial farmland, despite being a small minority of the population. The Expropriation Act is the government's attempt to remedy this enduring disparity, a motive the U.S. report largely overlooks in favor of a narrative focused on minority repression.

The Politicized Issue of Farm Murders

The topic of murders on farms is fraught with emotion, political manipulation, and disinformation. The U.S. report cites 447 murders on farms and smallholdings between October 2023 and September 2024. It also highlights the inflammatory rhetoric of the extremist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, which revived the controversial song "Kill the Boer [Farmer]."

However, data on this issue is often distorted. DIRCO points to an AFP fact-checking article that debunks wildly inflated claims, such as "60 white farmers are killed every day." More sober analysis from researchers like TAU SA and AfriForum indicates 49 farm murders in 2023, with the annual average over the last decade being 63 victims. While a majority of victims have historically been white (87.6 percent between 1990 and 2017), experts caution against framing this as a "genocide." Lizette Lancaster of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) notes the issue "has been politicised by specific interest groups" but ultimately "affects all South Africans."

A horrific case reported by the BBC, dubbed the "Pig Farm Murders," has poured fuel on these racial tensions. Two Black women were allegedly killed while looking for food on a pig farm, and their bodies were then fed to pigs. The U.S. report cites this as an example of violence against racial minorities, while DIRCO criticizes its inclusion, emphasizing that the case is being "actively adjudicated by our independent judiciary" and is not an extrajudicial killing.

State Conduct and Accountability

Beyond the farm murder debate, the U.S. report raises credible concerns about the conduct of state agents. It alleges "several reports the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings," citing police shooting at least 40 criminal suspects by April and noting that deaths in custody often result from abuse and neglect. It also references numerous cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, particularly of foreign nationals, with 15,139 complaints filed against the South African Police Service (SAPS) for unlawful arrest. Prolonged pretrial detention is another major issue, with defendants often held for an average of 176 days.

The government acknowledges incidents of police force but insists that robust oversight mechanisms are in place. DIRCO states that South Africa has a "transparent system where information is freely available from our law enforcement agencies and Chapter 9 institutions," which are constitutionally mandated to investigate and ensure due process.

This tension was evident in the aftermath of the July 2021 unrest. President Cyril Ramaphosa openly admitted that the government was "poorly prepared for an orchestrated campaign of public violence." The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) concurred, finding that SAPS was "ill-prepared." While the U.S. report highlights these failures as a sign of weakness, the government presents its open admission and remedial actions as proof of a functioning, self-critical democracy.

Broader Societal Tensions

The U.S. report also touches on other human rights challenges. It notes a significant increase in antisemitism, with the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) reporting 125 antisemitic incidents, over 70 percent of which occurred after the October 7 Hamas attack. The report links this to "anti-Zionist and related antisemitic rhetoric at high levels of government." Furthermore, it highlights concerns about freedom of the press, with journalists facing intimidation from political figures, and reports that South Africa has cooperated with other governments in acts of transnational repression.

In conclusion, the human rights situation in South Africa is a complex interplay of progress and persistent challenges. While the U.S. report sounds an alarm on critical issues like land reform, violent crime, and police conduct, the South African government argues this perspective is decontextualized and fails to appreciate the nation's ongoing struggle to overcome its apartheid past within a robust constitutional framework. The truth likely lies somewhere between the dire warnings and the defensive rebuttals, in a country still grappling with deep-seated inequality and the difficult path toward justice for all its citizens.

South Africa rejects inaccurate and deeply flawed account of Human Rights Practices