South Africa has rejected a US government report accusing it of moving towards land seizures from white farmers, calling the allegation “deeply flawed” and “inaccurate”.
The claim was made in the latest annual human rights report from the US State Department, which has faced criticism for softening language on the abuses of Washington’s allies while targeting governments it clashes with.
In its section on South Africa, the report said the government had taken “a substantially worrying step towards land expropriation of Afrikaners and further abuses against racial minorities”, describing the situation as worsening.
This was a marked shift from last year’s assessment, which found no significant change in the country’s human rights record.
“We find the report to be an inaccurate and deeply flawed account that fails to reflect the reality of our constitutional democracy,” Pretoria’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday, adding its “profound disappointment” at the claims.
The statement also reminded Washington that it had quit the UN Human Rights Council – “therefore no longer seeing itself accountable in a multilateral peer review system” – while issuing “one-sided fact-free reports without any due process or engagement”.
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Trade tensions
The report’s release comes days after Washington imposed 30 percent tariffs on a range of South African exports – the highest for any sub-Saharan country.
Trade ties are already under strain, with Pretoria keen to preserve access to the US market for agricultural, automotive and textile goods that support tens of thousands of jobs at home.
President Donald Trump has criticised South African land and employment laws aimed at tackling racial inequality decades after apartheid ended.
Earlier this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed legislation allowing land expropriation without compensation in certain cases. It is part of a long-running effort to address the racial imbalance in land ownership.
Most farmland is still in white hands despite years of reform. While the law is described as a targeted, last-resort measure, it has faced strong criticism abroad – especially in the US, where Trump has echoed far-right claims of “violence against racially disfavoured landowners” and issued an executive order for the US to resettle Afrikaners.
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Accusations of selective reporting
This year’s Human Rights Report has itself drawn scrutiny. Officials say it was delayed for months while Trump appointees revised it to fit “America First” priorities. The final version reduced criticism of governments such as El Salvador and Israel and removed most references to abuses against LGBTQI communities.
Rights groups and former officials say the changes reflect political convenience rather than impartial assessment.
“The report demonstrates what happens when political agendas take priority over the facts,” said Josh Paul, a former State Department official, likening the final product to a “Soviet propaganda release”.
The section on Israel left out any mention of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, despite local health officials reporting more than 61,000 deaths there since October 2023. By contrast, countries such as Brazil and South Africa – both in dispute with Washington on several issues – faced stronger criticism.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce defended the revisions as making the report “more readable” and trimming what she described as “politically biased demands and assertions”.
She declined to explain the removal of El Salvador’s extensive abuses from the document.
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Pretoria stays defiant
South African officials say the government remains committed to constitutional protections and that land reform is being carried out within the law to promote equality.
Pretoria is seeking to counter the US criticism while maintaining its trade ties with Washington.
The US is its third-largest trading partner, but South Africa has been expanding links with other major economies such as China to the EU.
That gives it some room – at least in theory – to push back against what it sees as biased portrayals from the United States.
(with newswires)
