South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has strongly rejected the latest U.S. Human Rights Report on South Africa, calling it inaccurate, biased, and a distortion of the country’s constitutional reality.
The 21-page document, released by Washington this week, claimed that South Africa’s human rights situation had “significantly worsened,” citing land expropriations from Afrikaners, “abuses against racial minorities,” and alleged extrajudicial killings in provinces like KwaZulu-Natal. DIRCO dismissed the claims as misleading, stressing that criminal suspects are formally arraigned in court and that the report relied on “discredited accounts.”
The department also criticized the U.S. for issuing judgments on other countries while itself refusing supervision by international mechanisms like the U.N. Human Rights Council. It noted America’s own unresolved human rights challenges, including racial inequality and systemic violence.
International relations analyst Zimkhita Nene echoed that point, saying the critique exposed a glaring inconsistency:
“This is a double standard by major proportions. South Africa’s constitution meets international standards and goes further by including socioeconomic rights to address historical injustice. In America, you have movements such as Black Lives Matter and Say Their Names, which highlight institutionalized violence specifically targeting people of color.”
Relations between Pretoria and Washington have remained strained, particularly since South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice over alleged violations of the Genocide Convention in Gaza. Tensions worsened under Donald Trump’s presidency, when the U.S. cut aid to South Africa and expelled its ambassador following criticisms of American policy.
Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola recently warned that repeated U.S. interference in South Africa’s domestic affairs had pushed bilateral relations “to a low.”
