South Africa denounces US human rights report

Johannesburg:South Africa s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has denounced the South Africa 2024 Human Rights Report is...

Johannesburg: South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has denounced the "South Africa 2024 Human Rights Report" issued by the United States as inaccurate and deeply flawed, saying that it fails to reflect the reality of the country's constitutional democracy.

"The report's reliance on 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," DIRCO said.

The 21-page report, released by the U.S. government on Wednesday, claims that "the human rights situation in South Africa significantly worsened during the year," following the expropriation of land belonging to Afrikaners and "abuses against racial minorities."

It also alleged that there had been "extrajudicial killings," citing media reports of criminal suspects killed in shoot-outs with police, particularly in the country's KwaZulu-Natal Province.

DIRCO refuted the claim, saying that it is not only premature but a fundamental distortion of the facts, as the individuals are formally arraigned before a court of law.