In 2023, former President Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial faced delays, raising questions as to whether Zuma would be held accountable. Members of the VIP Protection Unit of the South African Police Service (SAPS) were suspended for misconduct, facing charges of assault, malicious damage to property, and pointing a firearm at civilians. Environmental challenges remain a concern as air pollution continues to harm the health and well-being of South Africans. Entrenched sexual violence and discrimination prevent the realization of the rights of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. While guaranteed in legislation, the rights of older people and children have come under threat, and xenophobia against African and Asian foreign nationals continued throughout the year.
Right to a Healthy Environment
Following the March 18, 2022, landmark judgment that the poor air quality resulting from coal and other industrial fossil fuel operations in the Highveld Priority Area in Mpumalanga and some parts of Gauteng violated residents’ constitutional right to an environment that is not harmful to their health and well-being, there has been scant progress in the Highveld to meet health-based air quality standards. Instead, it is reported that Eskom, South Africa’s largest electricity producer and supplier, is using the current energy crisis in South Africa as an excuse for non-compliance with the country’s Minimum Emission Standards. Failure to meet the standards by 2030 would not only cost South Africa 42 billion rands (R) (about US$2.2 billion) and worsen the climate crisis, but also cost lives, with 2,300 deaths projected per year from air pollution.
In June, the Standerton Regional Court imposed an R70 million ($3.7 million) fine—one of the highest on record in South Africa for an environmental offense—on the Lekwa Local Municipality in Mpumalanga for contravening environmental legislation. A condition of the Lekwa prosecution agreement is that the fine will be used to rehabilitate and repair dysfunctional wastewater treatment works in Standerton and other parts of the Lekwa Local Municipality over the next three years.
Rule of Law
The corruption trial of former President Zuma was repeatedly delayed, and there are concerns that such delays are a possible ploy to avoid accountability. At time of writing, the trial was ongoing. On August 11, Zuma was released on special remission, following the expiration of his prison sentence for contempt of court. The remission was for low-risk offenders and aimed at alleviating overcrowding in prisons. It is reported that Zuma spent only 2 months in prison out of a 15-month sentence imposed in February 2021 for his failure to appear before the State Capture Inquiry.
On August 21, the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg postponed to 2024 the opening of a trial against those accused of the 1982 murders of Eustice “Bimbo” Madikela, Peter “Ntshingo” Matabane, and Fanyana Nhlapo and the attempted murder of Zandisile Musi. The four anti-apartheid activists were members of the Congress of South African Students, collectively known as the “COSAS 4.” Christiaan Rorich and Thlomedi Mfalapitsa are the accused in the matter, charged with kidnapping, murder, and crimes against humanity of murder and apartheid for unlawfully and intentionally killing the three students in the context of “a systemic attack or elimination of political opponents of the apartheid regime.”
Police Abuses
On July 2, members of the SAPS’s VIP Protection Unit viciously attacked three motorists in Johannesburg. In video footage taken by a witness, the officers are seen dragging a victim to the edge of the highway before punching and kicking him on the ground. Identified as members of the deputy president’s security detail, the policemen face charges of assault, malicious damage to property, and pointing a firearm. The officers have also been sanctioned under SAPS’s disciplinary regulations.
Violence against Women and Girls
Violence against women and girls is widespread, endemic, and an enduring nightmare in South Africa. The World Population Review for 2023 ranks South Africa among the top six countries with the highest femicide rates worldwide. Official crime statistics reveal that between April and June 2023, the police recorded 6,228 counts of murder, averaging 68 murders per day. Of those killed, 1,188 were “women and children,” including boys. In the sexual offenses category, an alarming 9,252 cases of rape were reported countrywide during the same period. Many women and girls, especially in the rural areas, find it difficult to access the justice system.
Older People’s Rights
Hundreds of thousands of older people do not have access to the community- and home-based care and support services they are entitled to under the Older Persons Act. The government allocates insufficient resources for services, places restrictions on what services nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can offer, and does not provide enough social workers. The Grant-in-Aid, the social security entitlement for people who require full-time support at home, pays an amount equivalent to less than one day’s pay, based on the national minimum wage of R25.42 per hour ($1.36). The Older Persons Grant, the main source of income for 4 million older people on low incomes, increased by 5 percent in 2023 while food prices rose by 14 percent.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
LGBT people, particularly lesbian women and transgender men in townships, are often targets of sexual assault and murder. On March 14, the National Assembly passed the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill to create criminal offenses for hate crimes and hate speech. In August, a revised National Intervention Strategy to combat violence against LGBT people was approved by the cabinet, and the National Task Team that coordinates government and civil society responses has been elevated to the portfolio of the deputy minister of justice.
Children’s Rights
Over the last decade, many children have died in pit toilets, and in 2020, the basic education minister, Angie Motshekga, had said that the Basic Education Department planned to eradicate pit latrines by March 2022. However, throughout 2023, pit latrines remained in many rural schools. On March 7, the body of a 4-year-old girl was found in a pit toilet in a school in the Eastern Cape. The police have opened an inquest and an investigation into the circumstances of her death.
Xenophobia
Xenophobic attitudes and violence continued in the post-Covid-19 context in South Africa.
In January, members of the anti-immigrant vigilante group Operation Dudula prevented immigrant patients, in some instances violently, from accessing the Jeppe Clinic in central Johannesburg, saying immigrants should access healthcare services in their countries of origin.
Zandspruit Clinic and Cosmo City Clinic also reportedly faced similar incidents during 2023. Collective Voices against Health Xenophobia—a consortium of progressive civil society organizations, activists, healthcare workers, and researchers working on issues of social justice and challenging xenophobia within the healthcare sector—condemned xenophobic acts and called on the government to uphold South Africa’s human rights legislation and international obligations recognizing the right to health for everyone, regardless of immigration status.
Thousands of Zimbabweans who fled political repression and economic deprivation in their country and lived for years in South Africa under Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEPs) faced a renewed risk of expulsion after the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) announced that their permits would be canceled after June 2023. On June 28, the Pretoria High Court ruled the cancellation of ZEPs unlawful and unconstitutional, labeling it an “unjustified limitation of rights” and granted permit holders a 12-month reprieve. On September 18, the DHA initiated steps to appeal the judgment to the Supreme Court of Appeal and lost the appeal. On November 10, the DHA proposed a migration system overhaul. Among the DHA’s proposals are that South Africa withdraw from the Refugee Convention and reaccede to it with reservations. This would be a damaging backslide on South Africa’s commitments.
In August, a fire in a five-story building in Johannesburg’s central business district killed more than 70 people. The building had served as an “informal settlement,” primarily for undocumented migrants living with little to no access to electricity, water, or sanitation. In the wake of the tragedy, many South Africans blamed foreign nationals, with some claiming that eviction laws protect criminals by making it difficult to remove people who are occupying buildings without authorization.
Foreign Policy
In August, South Africa hosted the 15th BRICS Summit. Prior to the summit, a court ruled that South Africa was obligated to arrest President Vladimir Putin of Russia should he attend because he is subject to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged war crimes linked to the war in Ukraine. Putin did not attend.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has also been criticized for being silent on human rights violations by members of the BRICS bloc, which includes new members with poor human rights records, such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. New and old concerns were raised about how South Africa’s association with the bloc could, in the long run, erode the country’s rights culture. During the summit, local and international civil society groups protested in Johannesburg against human rights abuses in participating countries.
On July 11, the Extra-Ordinary Summit of Heads of States and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) extended the region’s joint military mission in the Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique, the SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM), for another 12 months. The mission’s mandate is now scheduled to end on July 16, 2024. The South African National Defence Force is the largest contributor to SAMIM; about 600 of SAMIM’s 1,000 soldiers come from the South African military.
In November, South Africa, along with several other International Criminal Court (ICC) member countries, submitted a joint referral to the ICC to back the ICC prosecutor’s investigation in Palestine. On December 29, South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice arguing that Israel violated its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in the context of its military operations in Gaza. It also asked the court to issue provisional measures to protect the Palestinian people and to ensure Israel’s compliance with the convention.