PRETORIA – On Tuesday, August 12, 2025, South Africa’s government denounced a US State Department report that claimed the country’s human rights situation “significantly worsened” due to alleged land expropriation targeting Afrikaners and abuses against racial minorities, labeling it “inaccurate and deeply flawed,” as reported by Le Monde and Free Malaysia Today. The report, released on August 11, 2025, follows the Trump administration’s imposition of 30% tariffs on South African exports, the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, effective July 7, 2025, per South African Government News. Pretoria’s foreign ministry expressed “profound disappointment,” asserting the report misrepresents South Africa’s constitutional democracy, particularly criticizing its focus on the Expropriation Act signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2024, which allows land expropriation without compensation in rare cases to address apartheid-era inequalities, where 8% of the population (mostly white) owns 72% of farmland, per 2023 Stats SA data.
The US report, described as “streamlined” and aligned with Trump’s “America First” values, omitted references to gender and LGBTQ+ abuses while escalating criticism of South Africa and Brazil, both at odds with Washington, per Al Jazeera. South Africa’s response highlighted its efforts to negotiate a trade deal with the US, its third-largest trading partner, to protect 60,000 jobs in agriculture, automotive, and textiles (ECR). The tariffs, costing an estimated $2.1 billion annually, follow Trump’s executive order to resettle Afrikaners as refugees, a move Pretoria contests as echoing far-right narratives (US News). X posts from @DIRCO_ZA (August 12, 2025) and @SA_Newsroom criticized the report’s bias, while @ConCaracal praised its focus on Afrikaner issues, reflecting polarized sentiments. South Africa plans to diversify export markets to mitigate the tariffs’ impact, per the Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition.
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