Pretoria Pushes Back: SA Slams US Over “Flawed” Human Rights Report

The South African government has come out swinging against a US State Department report that paints a grim picture of the country’s human rights record. Pretoria says the report not only misrepresents reality but cherry-picks and distorts information to fit a skewed narrative.

A stinging US assessment

The US report’s executive summary claimed South Africa’s human rights situation “significantly worsened” in 2024, pointing to the signing of the Expropriation Bill in December as evidence of a “worrying step” toward land seizures targeting Afrikaners and other racial minorities.

It accused Pretoria of failing to investigate or punish officials implicated in human rights abuses and cited “inflammatory racial rhetoric” and violence against minority communities.

Dirco hits back

That assessment didn’t sit well with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco). Spokesperson Chrispin Phiri called the findings “inaccurate and deeply flawed” and accused the US of relying on “a-contextual information and discredited accounts.”

He highlighted one example: an ongoing murder case involving farm workers, which the US report framed as an extrajudicial killing. “This is not only premature but a fundamental distortion of the facts,” Phiri said, noting that the matter is before the courts.

Defending the record

Phiri argued that South Africa has strong safeguards, from its independent judiciary to its Chapter 9 institutions, that actively investigate misconduct, including police use of force. He suggested the US was ignoring these processes.

He also pointed out the irony of Washington issuing such a report while having withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council and facing its own documented rights concerns, from refugee treatment to due process violations by agencies like ICE.

The land debate: UN vs. US

A key point of contention was the US criticism of the Expropriation Bill. While Washington described it as a threat to racial minorities, the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva has called it a “critical step” toward addressing South Africa’s racially skewed land ownership, a legacy of apartheid that still shapes economic inequality today.

For Pretoria, that UN endorsement underscores the legitimacy of the process and the fact that land reform is being pursued within a constitutional, rights-based framework.

Setting the record straight

Phiri said the government will soon release documents, including reports from the SA Human Rights Commission and reputable news outlets, to counter what he called the distortions in the US account.

“We remain open to addressing these distortions through diplomatic channels,” he said, hinting that this dispute may play out in the realm of foreign policy rather than just the press.

Public reaction and political undertones

Reactions on South African social media have been split. Some view the US criticism as hypocritical, pointing to America’s own racial and human rights controversies. Others believe Pretoria should treat the report as a wake-up call, arguing that dismissing outside scrutiny risks ignoring domestic shortcomings.

In reality, the clash reflects more than just a disagreement over facts, it’s a tug-of-war over who gets to define the global narrative on South Africa’s democracy and its progress, or lack thereof, on human rights.

{Source: The Citizen}

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