SA is among a group of countries that came in for fierce criticism for human rights abuses during the enforcement of Covid-19 lockdown regulations and its relief programmes.
In a report released on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch, which investigates and reports on abuses around the world, raised issues of excessive force used by police and security officers to enforce lockdown regulations, the exclusion of groups such as foreigners from aid programmes, and xenophobia.
The World Report 2021 looked at threats to human rights in more than 100 countries.
The organisation’s Southern African director, Dewa Mavhinga, said SA was one of the Southern African countries, along with Zimbabwe and Angola, that had issues with law enforcement officials. These related to detentions, beatings and other forms of abuse to enforce lockdown regulations.
He said some of the responses by authorities to support vulnerable communities, particularly in SA, were inadequate. This related to food parcels and other basic needs for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants during extended periods of lockdown.
Human Rights Watch Africa director Mausi Segun said several governments on the continent introduced full lockdowns with severe restrictions, and while these had helped to curb the spread of the virus they also had a disproportionate effect on people living in poverty and economic depravity.
SA went into one of the strictest lockdowns at the beginning of the outbreak, putting a halt to almost all economic activity. It put in place sometimes obscure regulations, from banning citizens from buying cooked food and forms of clothing, to banning the sale of tobacco and alcohol. With the hard lockdown also came the deployment of the army to help police enforcement regulations.
The use of force by the military units against members of the public in enforcing lockdown regulations raised concern after reports that soldiers were complicit in the torture of some citizens and the death of Alexandra resident Collins Khoza. Similar accounts of soldiers beating up and killing civilians in Zimbabwean streets were also reported.
The Human Rights Watch report hit hard on incidents of xenophobic violence and discrimination against foreigners in SA. It said law enforcement officials often responded with indifference or provided inadequate remedies to xenophobic attacks. Refugees and asylum seekers faced barriers to protection, which included a newly enacted law restricting access to asylum and a huge government backlog in processing claims and appeals, the organisation said.
Mavhinga said since Human Rights Watch’s last report, which highlighted xenophobic violence in SA, there had been a “lack of accountability” in the country and there has not been much progress.
“There has not been any commitment from authorities to thoroughly investigate issues that we raised or to engage with the recommendations we put out, particularly the failing of the law enforcement authorities in terms of facilitating thorough investigations and holding accountable those people behind xenophobic violence,” he said
He raised the reported attacks on foreign truck drivers as an example.
A number of trucks were set alight in late 2020, with local drivers claiming foreigners were taking jobs meant for them and that employers in the sector preferred employing cheaper foreign drivers at their expense.
Mavhinga also had a go at the Gauteng Township Economic Development Bill, which was released for public say in 2020. If passed, the draft bill could restrict where foreign nationals may set up formal and informal businesses in SA’s economic hub.
“That is a huge concern, because it could actually result in xenophobic violence and xenophobia spreading further.
“We have not had much joy in terms of response [from SA authorities] but we continue to highlight [it] and it’s a major concern for us,” he said.
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