You, SA and USA relations

WE HAVE all been fixated by the recent exchange between Pretoria and Washington following the US State Department's report on human rights in South Africa and our government's rejection of the report as “inaccurate and deeply flawed”.

- ADVOCATE LAVAN GOPAUL

This is more than just a diplomatic spat; it has significant economic implications.

It may be served as a form of retribution for the South Afrcan government, Israel and the ICJ stance.

The US claims include a “significantly worsened” human rights situation, citing issues from land expropriation without compensation targeting Afrikaners, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, and repression of racial minorities.

In a decidedly blunt rejoinder, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) dismissed the report as “inaccurate and deeply flawed”, accusing it of relying on “context-free information and unreliable accounts” and distortions — especially concerning incidents still before independent judicial processes.

Dirco points to the transparent and contested nature of the law, framed within constitutional mechanisms and robust judicial oversight. Indeed, expropriation, including without compensation, is not unprecedented in constitutional democracies when tied to public interest objectives and subject to due process.

The US also raised the Limpopo “pig farm” case as an instance of extrajudicial killing, where two female farmworkers were allegedly murdered and fed to pigs. Dirco labels this as misrepresentation.

The matter is “actively adjudicated” by independent courts, and governmental structures diligently pursue proper investigation. These observations highlight tension between extrinsic perceptions and internal legal due process. In assessing human rights conditions, global observers must afford deference to domestic institutions when they demonstrably function coherently and transparently.