Human rights in South Africa
[2] Apartheid was a system of segregation and discrimination implemented by a White minority onto the Black majority.
[4] Many of South Africa's anti-apartheid laws have been enacted while keeping in mind that what is seen by the international community, human rights organisations, and the Black majority in the country as the social and legal injustices associated with apartheid, and its anti-apartheid message has been hailed as an exemplary face of a Sub-Saharan nation.
[6] Nevertheless, there have been issues in the implementation of these laws, and according to a 2020 report by Amnesty International, South Africa has one of the most unequal educational systems in the world, with the widest gap between the test scores of the top 20% of schools and the remaining 80%.
[12] In 2000, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was specifically concerned with the lack of implementation of South Africa's agreement to guarantee free primary education.
[16] Essentially, voters dependence on the state precludes their ability to vote based on ideological platforms.
[17] This number increased sharply during the coronavirus pandemic; in October 2020, more than 70% of South Africans were living in a household receiving government support.
[19] The White Paper on Social Welfare focuses on providing South Africans with opportunities for increased autonomy.
[19] The government expects families to take responsibility for caring their elderly relatives, partly because of cultural values.
[19] The White Paper also covered child support grants and refrained from stereotyping concerning the gender roles in a family.
[19] Racial disparities in the cities of South Africa still exist, despite the country's having long since ended apartheid.
Many black South Africans still struggle to obtain basic needs such as housing, living in under-maintained townships, while many urban white South Africans reside in gated communities with a heavy presence of private security.
The Sowetan Live has recently reported that "...indeed the city has contributed to" building "4,000 social homes in 11 districts" with more than 350,000 residents still in need of immediate housing relief.
[21] Additionally, the water is dirty with human and industrial waste which contributes to the spread of disease.
[21] Poverty is a major reason for death because poor families are not able to afford proper health services and hospitals are not able to buy enough supplies.
[21] Additionally, people living in South Africa who are illegal immigrants lack resources for health care that is non-emergency.
[21] Additionally, the local and federal governments had disagreements about the allocation of funds for HIV/AIDS prevention, thus causing inefficiency and gridlock.
[21] The migrant workers usually would not see their wives and families for months, so they had extramarital sexual intercourse in the cities.
[22] The difference in these percentages is caused by general physicians moving to the private healthcare sector and by brain drain.
[22] The South African government has been criticised by Human Rights Watch for deporting hundreds of thousands of Zimbabwean refugees and treating victims of political violence as economic migrants.
[25] On 17 September 2020, Human Rights Watch published a 64-page report detailing the widespread xenophobic violence in South Africa.
Despite the March 2019 adoption of a government action plan to combat xenophobia, African and Asian foreigners in the country suffer routine harassment and abuse.
[27] As his defense, Zuma claimed that he could "have liaisons with women" quite easily, so he asserted that he would not have raped Khwezi.
[27] " These actions caused gender activists to protest against sexism and to raise concern about the fact that the judge allowed the court to admit evidence about Khwezi's sexual history, but did not admit evidence from Zuma's sexual history.
[27] Many people felt that Zuma went against the modern South African liberal democracy because he represented patriarchy at a relative extreme.
[27] in 2018/19, South African police recorded 41,583 rapes, though experts have warned that it is difficult to assess how many more cases have not been reported.
[33] A number of high-profile baby rapes that included extensive reconstructive surgery to rebuild urinary, genital, abdominal, or tracheal systems have appeared.
[34] It was a direct response to the Minister of Home Affairs v Fourie case, where the Constitutional Court declared the lack of legal recognition of same-sex relationships unconstitutional and gave Parliament a year to remedy the situation.
[34] South Africa's post-apartheid constitution was the first in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation.
[38] The Labour Relations Act 66 allows workers to create unions and collectively bargain.
[38] The Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 has regulations concerning working hours, leave, and termination.
