Solution needed: Durban protesters demand the removal of foreigners. Xenophobia is one of the issues South Africa needs to tackle. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
South Africa needs to urgently address xenophobia, femicide and corruption, among other challenges.
The United Nations’ universal periodic review session in Geneva, Switzerland, was an opportunity for the country to update the UN’s Human Rights Council Working Group on progress made since the previous review four years ago.
The leader of the South African delegation, John Jeffery, who also serves as deputy justice minister, and other senior government officials responded to concerns raised during the previous session in 2018.
However, instead of making progress, if anything, xenophobia, corruption and femicide have escalated in the intervening years, despite the government saying it had dedicated R21 billion to addressing gender-based violence (GBV).
It is estimated the country lost R1.5 trillion to corruption between 2014 and 2019.
The Human Rights Council, comprising 47 countries, did commend the progress South Africa had made in addressing issues raised in 2018, which included corruption, xenophobia and GBV, but called for more action in what one European delegate said was the need to “accelerate the activation of the anti-corruption action plan”.
The call came as South Africa grapples with multibillion-rand corruption cases that have highlighted just how entrenched the embezzlement of public funds has become.
Continuing reports of hate crimes and anti-foreigner sentiment remained a worry for council members.
“We are fully aware of incidents of violence that appear to disproportionately target foreign nationals,” Jeffery said.
“Much of this discrimination and violence stems from frustration within sections of South African communities that feel they are competing with foreigners for scarce resources,” he added.
Xenophobic attacks flared this year, with some officials in the ANC, and vigilante groups such as Operation Dudula, calling for the expulsion of foreigners.
“The South African government does not condone these actions. Where people have engaged in violent conduct against foreign nationals, the government has sought to ensure that those responsible are held to account by the justice system,” Jeffery told the session.
“We acknowledge xenophobia is a growing problem of in South Africa,” said Zane Dangor, director general in the department of international relations and cooperation.
“Our criminal justice system will be engaged so that clear plans are developed,” Dangor said, noting the importance of civil society to “hold the executive to account”.
Regarding GBV and the killing of women, the head of the South African delegation said the government remained “extremely concerned about the continuation of the scourge”.
International pressure is growing for South Africa to effectively deal with what has been described as “a femicide epidemic”.
Mikateko Maluleke, the director general at the department of women, youth and persons with disabilities, highlighted the international attention GBV in South Africa has attracted.
“We have established rapid-response mechanisms in provinces and municipalities to ensure the implementation of the national strategic plan on gender-based violence responses are localised,” she said.
In response to recommendations by some members of the UN Working Group for South Africa to prioritise the professional training of officers dealing with GBV cases, a call that has also been made by local rights groups, Maluleke said the country had adopted a crime-prevention strategy which provided training for police and other criminal justice officials.
“There are 83 courts that have been established as sexual offences courts in order to ensure access to courts for rape victims,” she told the UN review session.
The numbers tell their own story about the extent of sexual violence in South Africa — more than 14 000 convicted sex offenders were reached for therapeutic and non-therapeutic programmes in the 2021-22 financial year, Maluleke said.
In the fight against corruption, the UN Working Group called on South Africa to do more to protect whistleblowers, who have increasingly been targeted for assassination.
“With regards to protecting whistleblowers and human rights defenders, the government has commenced legislation to ensure, among others, that witnesses and whistleblowers receive greater protection,” Jeffery said.
Local civil society groups issued a joint statement saying, “This review comes at an appropriate time in South Africa as we face ongoing human rights violations in our country today,” and adding that South Africa “continues to be one of the most unequal countries in the world, with over 55% of people living below the poverty line and 25% living in food or extreme poverty”.
Among other recommendations raised by the panel members was for South Africa to tackle the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment.
“Our government has been hard at work to deal with and reverse the stubborn legacy of three and a half centuries of colonialism, racial discrimination, the denial of rights, apartheid and the economic and social exclusion of the vast majority of our people,” Jeffery told the panel.
Also raised during the session was respect for civil and political rights, with one African delegate calling for the improvement of conditions in South Africa’s detention centres.
On the right to education, deputy minister Reginah Mhaule told the review South Africa had adopted what she called “pro-poor policies” that had “reduced learner dropout significantly”.
This is despite some of the country’s educationists expressing reservations about government’s commitment to ensure education for all.
In 2018, researchers found statistics from the department of education showed out of 23 471 public schools, 20 071 had no laboratories, 18 019 had no library, while 16 897 had no internet, 239 had no electricity and 37 had no sanitation facilities.
“About 95% of public schools provide free education, with the government emphasising infrastructure development,” Mhaule said during her virtual presentation.
“There is a school infrastructure backlog,” she added.
In 2020, Amnesty International noted that South Africa’s education system, “characterised by crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms and relatively poor educational outcomes” was “perpetuating inequality”, adding, “change is needed urgently”.
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