Latest news with #landexpropriation
Russia Today
6 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
South Africa rejects US human rights report
South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola has criticized a recent US State Department human rights report on his country, describing it as 'inaccurate and deeply flawed.' The report alleges that South Africa is moving towards land expropriation targeting Afrikaners and mistreating racial minorities, claims the South African government has strongly rejected. Lamola expressed 'profound disappointment' with the report. 'We find the report to be an inaccurate and deeply flawed account that fails to reflect the reality of our constitutional democracy,' said Chrispin Phiri, DIRCO spokesperson. He added that the report's reliance on 'a-contextual information and discredited accounts' is highly concerning. 'It cites an incident involving the deaths of farm workers and, despite the matter being actively adjudicated by our independent judiciary, misleadingly presents it as an extrajudicial killing,' said Phiri. 'This is not only premature but a fundamental distortion of the facts, as the individuals are formally arraigned before a court of law.' He also criticised how the report handled issues involving police conduct. 'Similarly, incidents of police using force are mentioned without acknowledging the robust processes in place, where institutions designed to protect our democracy are actively investigating whether due process was followed and if such force was warranted,' he said. Phiri said South Africa operates a transparent system, where information is freely available from law enforcement agencies and Chapter 9 institutions, which are constitutionally mandated to protect and advance human rights. 'It is ironic that a report from a nation that has exited by the UN Human Rights Council and therefore no longer sees itself accountable in a multilateral peer review system would seek to produce one side fact free reports without any due process or engagement,' he said. 'This is particularly striking given the significant and documented concerns about human rights within the United States, including the treatment of refugees and breaches in due process by its own agencies, such as ICE.' Phiri contrasted the US report with a recent assessment from the United Nations Human Rights Office in Geneva, which he said it endorsed South Africa's land reform programme. 'This recognition from the UN's primary human rights body underscores the integrity of our legislative processes aimed at rectifying historical injustices in a constitutional and human-rights-based manner,' he said. He added that the government is compiling a set of documents that will be released to the public during the course of the week. 'A cursory reading of reports from the South African Human Rights Commission and the UN Human Rights Council, as well as articles from reputable news agencies like the AFP serve to correct the distortions and set the record straight on South Africa's unwavering commitment to human rights.' The US report alleged multiple instances where the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings. 'In July the provincial police commissioner confirmed that as of April, police shot and killed at least 40 criminal suspects in shoot-outs. On September 2, police reported six suspects wanted for homicide and extortion were shot and killed by Durban police in a shoot-out,' it said. It further referenced a January report from the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on the 2021 unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, which resulted in the deaths of 337 people and the arrest of 3,400 others. According to the report, the SAHRC found the government and police shortcomings in intelligence sharing and described the South African Police Service as 'ill-prepared to deal with orchestrated attacks'. It further said that the SAHRC reported that on August 30, two Black women, ages 45 and 35, were shot and killed at a farm in Limpopo. 'According to the SAHRC, a swineherd and two employees were arrested and appeared in court on charges of killing the women. The victims were allegedly shot and killed and their remains fed to the swineherd's pigs.' The report went on to allege that according to data compiled by Agence France-Presse (AFP), there were 447 murders on farms and smallholdings between October 2023 and September 2024. It also alleged that the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) encouraged violence against Afrikaner farmers by reviving the controversial song 'Kill the Boer (Farmer)' at its rallies and otherwise inciting violence. However, EFF leader Julius Malema has since vowed to continue singing the song after the Constitutional Court ruled that it does not incite violence, hate speech or promote killings of white farmers. The report also claimed that refugee advocacy organisations have said that police and immigration officials physically abused refugees and asylum seekers. 'Violence against migrants, including asylum seekers and refugees, was a continuing problem across the country. Those targeted often owned or managed small, informal grocery stores in economically marginalised areas that lacked government services,' the report said. However, the South African government has vehemently denied all the claims, calling them published by IOL
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
South Africa Rebukes US Over ‘Deeply Flawed' Human Rights Report
South Africa's government slammed a report published by US President Donald Trump's administration that said the human-rights situation in the African nation 'significantly worsened' last year. The review published by the State Department late on Tuesday echoed some of Trump's criticisms of the country, including Pretoria's adoption of a land-expropriation policy. It also raised concern about alleged extra-judicial killings and repression of racial minorities.
Al Arabiya
6 days ago
- Business
- Al Arabiya
South Africa denounces ‘deeply flawed' US human rights report
South Africa has condemned what it called a 'deeply flawed' US report on its human rights record, issued just days after the Trump administration imposed 30 percent tariffs on many of the country's exports. In its annual human rights report released Tuesday, the US State Department accused South Africa of taking 'a substantially worrying step toward land expropriation of Afrikaners and further abuses against racial minorities.' Pretoria's foreign ministry expressed 'profound disappointment' over the findings, saying the report was 'an inaccurate and deeply flawed account' that failed to reflect the reality of its constitutional democracy. A law signed this year by President Cyril Ramaphosa — and criticized by Trump — allows land expropriation without compensation in rare cases. Land ownership remains a contentious issue, with most farmland still owned by white South Africans three decades after the end of apartheid. South Africa, Washington's third-largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa, is seeking a deal to preserve tens of thousands of jobs in its agricultural, automotive, and textile sectors that depend heavily on the US market.
The Herald
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald
'Group of older men gossip about me': Malema on White House video clip
EFF leader Julius Malema has responded to a clip of him singing the controversial 'kill the Boer' chant after it was played during President Cyril Ramaphosa's meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday. Trump played the clip to try to prove claims of white genocide in South Africa, which Ramaphosa's delegation denied, saying that violent crime affects all South Africans, not just white farmers. Malema took to social media, describing the leaders and their delegation as 'a group of older men' who met to 'gossip about him'. He said there's no evidence to prove white genocide, despite him consistently singing the song. 'No significant amount of intelligence evidence has been produced about white genocide,' Malema said. 'We will not agree to compromise our political principles on land expropriation without compensation for political expediency.'
Free Malaysia Today
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
South Africans angered by Trump's ‘genocide' claims
President Donald Trump speaks with President Cyril Ramaphosa (left) during his visit to the White House in Washington. (EPA Images pic) CAPE TOWN : South Africans voiced anger Thursday at US President Donald Trump's persistent false claim of a genocide against white farmers that were repeated in talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa. The talks between the two presidents Wednesday were aimed at repairing relations that have nosedived since Trump took office in January, later threatening high trade tariffs and expelling the South African ambassador. 'I am not happy,' university student Nicole Mbhele told AFP. 'He made it seem like we want to kill white people or white farmers for our land, or (for) wanting it back,' she said. A video aired during the meeting showed the leader of a fringe, radical opposition party chanting a song from the anti-apartheid struggle about 'killing' white farmers. Trump also repeated baseless allegations that South Africa was expropriating land from the minority white Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch settlers who own more than three-quarters of commercial farmland. 'Donald Trump does not have facts about what is happening in South Africa,' said 25-year-old saleswoman Naledi Morwalle. He was making 'false accusations about our country', she said. 'We are all facing all types and levels of crimes. Both blacks and whites,' she said. South Africans followed the meeting live on television and many were proud of the performance of the South African delegation, reinforced by four cabinet ministers and two top golfers. While some said Ramaphosa could have been more adamant in rejecting Trump's baseless claims of a 'white genocide', others noted his calm pushback that black South Africans suffer most from the high crime rate. 'I think our country did well and actually put the facts out there,' said activist Ulrich Steenkamp. 'Whether the world responds is up to them,' he added. The video played during the meeting, which also showed rows of white crosses in what Trump falsely said were graves of murdered white farmers, clearly rattled Ramaphosa, said analyst Thelela Ngcetane-Vika, of the Wits School of Governance. 'In the first half of the session President Ramaphosa was very well prepared, poised as a statesman, diplomatic… but when that video played, you could literally see his body language change, he became uneasy,' she told AFP. Ramaphosa should have provided data to disprove Trump's disinformation, she said. An Afrikaans father, Authur Williams, told AFP the success of the talks would only be seen in any trade deals reached between the two major trading partners. 'I sincerely hope that economically we will come to an agreement where it's mutually beneficial and there are economic benefits for both parties,' he said.
