SOUTH AFRICA
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
Head of state and government: Thabo Mbeki
Capital: Pretoria
Population: 43.8 million
Official languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu
Death Penalty: abolitionist for all crimes

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Torture, excessive force and the misuse of lethal force by the police continued to be reported. Prisoners awaiting trial were released to reduce severe overcrowding. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission completed its hearing of amnesty applications. Despite measures to increase police effectiveness, many victims of continuing high levels of rape and other sexual violence remained without protection or redress. A court ruling ordered the government to make anti-retroviral drugs available to HIV-positive pregnant women. In some provinces, the authorities took action to prevent rape survivors being given such drugs. The government sought the return of two suspects handed over to Botswana without formal extradition proceedings or assurances that they would not be sentenced to death; the Constitutional Court ruled unlawful the return of an asylum-seeker to the USA in 1999 under similar circumstances.

Background

In March the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association (PMA) reached an out-of-court settlement with the government in its case to declare illegal new legislation intended to increase access to cheaper anti-retroviral drugs for South Africans with HIV/AIDS. A tenth of the population has the disease. The Treatment Action Campaign and other organizations, which had pressured the PMA to withdraw its case, also criticized the government for disputing publicly the cause of AIDS and failing to implement clear plans to address the crisis.

In April the Minister of Safety and Security, Steve Tshwete, announced that three leading members of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) were under police investigation in connection with an alleged plot against President Mbeki. However, the allegation appeared to be based on suspect intelligence information and the Minister later conceded that those named were innocent.

In October a senior ANC official, Tony Yengeni, was arrested and charged with corruption and perjury after an investigation by statutory and parliamentary bodies into a government multi-billion dollar arms deal with European companies.

There were increasing tensions between the ANC and its ''tripartite alliance'' partners, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party, over their involvement in strikes and public protests and the direction of government policies.

The government remained under pressure to address public concern about high levels of violent crime. Anti-crime vigilante groups carried out violent attacks on criminal suspects. The authorities implemented reforms to increase the effectiveness of investigations and the conviction rate, including improving training in ''intelligence-led'' investigations and extending court hours. Proposals for a Victims Charter, including financial compensation to crime victims, were developed in cooperation with the South African Human Rights Commission and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Human rights violations by the security forces

Incidents of torture, ill-treatment and suspected misuse of lethal force continued to be reported. The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) told parliament that they were investigating 266 reports of deaths in police custody and as a result of police action received between April and September, as well as 36 complaints of torture and 123 complaints of serious assault and attempted murder. One case involved members of the Umtata Murder and Robbery Unit who, in May, when interrogating a suspect, allegedly poured acid over his genitals. Following ICD investigations, police officers in Gauteng Province were arrested and charged after allegedly assaulting suspected illegal immigrants in incidents in March and August.

There were other reported incidents of such abuses.

• In November, two men required hospital treatment after being severely beaten, allegedly with pick handles, by police in the Pietersburg area, Northern Province. One of them, Benjamin Pootona, required emergency treatment for renal failure as well as bone fractures.
• In a possible racially-motivated death in police custody, in February the body of Bheki Zikhali was found in a forest in the Mbazwana area, Northern KwaZulu Natal, a day after he was arrested. The body reportedly bore signs of torture. According to witness testimony, Bheki Zikhali had been told by the white officer who arrested him that he was being taken to Mbazwana police station, but family members later found no trace of him there. An independent post-mortem examination was ordered. In April, four men, including two police officers, were arrested, charged with kidnapping and murder, and released on bail to await trial. The trial proceedings had not concluded by the end of the year.
• On 23 April Zakhele Mabhida was shot dead in the offices of the Durban Murder and Robbery Unit, shortly after he had handed himself over to the police in connection with an investigation into the killing of two police officers earlier in the year. Preliminary investigations indicated that he posed no threat to the police when shot.

There were a number of incidents in which police used excessive force.

• In February, when police were attempting to control a student protest at the University of the North in Sovenga, a police officer reportedly fired rubber bullets at student Mahlane Lazarus Letselane, injuring his eye, although he was posing no threat according to witness and film evidence.

In November, four police officers, accused of deliberately inciting police dogs to attack three defenceless Mozambican detainees in 1998, were convicted and sentenced to an effective four to five years' imprisonment.

The Ministry of Justice and human rights organizations sought an order from the Constitutional Court in November effectively to compel the police to implement a 1998 reform of the Criminal Procedure Act which limited the use of deadly force to situations where lives were under threat.

Prison conditions

The government took steps to improve prison conditions. The Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons had reported at the end of 2000 that prisons were severely overcrowded, with some at 200 per cent occupancy rate, and that a third of the prison population who were awaiting trial were detained under inhumane conditions and in breach of national law and international standards.

The Departments of Correctional Services and Justice authorized the release of some of these prisoners, many of whom had been unable to pay bail money owing to poverty. The Judicial Matters Amendment Act in December allowed prison directors to apply to court for the release of certain categories of unconvicted prisoners where overcrowding imminently threatened their health or safety. The Correctional Services Amendment Act in December amended provisions on the use of force and weapons, to ensure their use was proportionate to threats to life and safety.

Impunity

The trial continued in the Pretoria High Court of the former head of the chemical and biological warfare program, Dr Wouter Basson, on charges including murder and attempted murder of opponents of the apartheid government. In June the court acquitted the accused of 15 of the original 64 charges, including nine charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to murder and assault. From July the accused testified and was under cross-examination for nine weeks concerning the remaining charges against him. Dr Basson only admitted to supplying non-lethal ''substances'' for use during cross-border operations including abductions of enemies of the state in the 1980s. He denied knowledge of the identities of these targets, except that they were from the ANC and the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO).

By June the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) completed its work with hearings and decisions on some 120 remaining applications for amnesties from perpetrators of human rights violations.

• The Committee granted amnesty to Eugene de Kock and eight other members of the former Vlakplaas police death squad for the ''culpable homicide'' in 1991 of the human rights lawyer, Bheki Mlangeni. The explosive device which killed him had been intended for the former Vlakplaas commander, Dirk Coetzee, who had exposed the death squad's operations. The Committee accepted that the applicants had acted under orders and for a political objective.
• In a case involving former Vlakplaas and Durban security police officers, the Committee refused amnesty to four applicants for the abduction and death in 1987 of a government opponent, Ntombikayise Priscilla Khubeka. Evidence provided to the Committee by independent forensic doctors confirmed that she had been shot dead and had not died from a heart attack as claimed by the applicants.

The court case brought against the TRC by Inkatha Freedom Party leader, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, to compel it to reverse its finding that he was complicit in large-scale human rights abuses had not concluded by the end of the year.

In August the Minister of Justice told parliament that the government had committed funds for ''final reparations'' for victims of human rights violations, but that the details would not be discussed in parliament until the President received the final TRC report. The report had not been completed by the end of 2001.

Violations of the rights of women and children

High levels of violence, including sexual violence, against women and children continued. According to police statistics, from January to September there were nearly 38,000 reported rapes and attempted rapes. Just over 40 per cent involved victims younger than 18 years of age.

Government bodies, including the Sexual Offences and Community Affairs Unit of the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions, implemented programs to train police and criminal justice officials on the Domestic Violence Act. They took steps to improve facilities for victims of sexual violence at police stations and health clinics and to increase the effectiveness of the investigation and prosecution of the crime of rape. However, the shortage of police and prosecution resources and of infrastructure such as shelters, as well as prejudiced or unsympathetic attitudes towards complainants, particularly in rural areas, left many victims without protection or redress.

Access to health care

In December the Pretoria High Court ordered the government to make available an anti-retroviral drug to HIV-positive women giving birth in public health facilities and to their babies. The applicants, local NGOs and paediatricians, took the national and provincial health ministers to court because of concern at the high number of babies, about 70,000, who were infected each year through mother-to-child transmission. The court found the government in breach of its constitutional obligation to achieve the ''progressive realisation of the right to health care'' and that its restriction of access to the drug was discriminatory. The government lodged an appeal.

In Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape provinces, at least two doctors in public health facilities were suspended and others subjected to disciplinary proceedings because they provided anti-retroviral drugs to rape survivors to reduce the possibility of HIV transmission. The provincial Minister of Health in Mpumalanga applied for a court order to evict an NGO, the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project, from Rob Ferreira Hospital, apparently because it provided financial assistance for patients who were unable to afford the drugs.

Refugee and extradition concerns

• In March, Kagiso Sebi, a South African and Benson Keganne, a national of Botswana, were unlawfully handed over to the Botswanan authorities by South African police officers to face murder charges. No extradition hearing had taken place and no assurances had been sought from the Botswanan government that the death penalty would not be used. The South African government requested their return. By the end of 2001, the Botswanan authorities were reportedly refusing to comply with the request.
• In May the Constitutional Court ruled that government authorities had acted without any basis in law when, in October 1999, they handed over an asylum-seeker, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, to US officials for trial in connection with the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The Court also ruled that his constitutional rights to dignity, life and not to be punished in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way had been violated by the authorities' failure to seek assurances from the US government that he would not be sentenced to death.

Correspondence with government

AI raised concerns with the government about the care and treatment of rape survivors, human rights violations by the security forces, South African citizens at risk of execution abroad and the regional and international protection of human rights through the government's foreign policy.

AI country reports/visits

Visits

AI delegates visited South Africa on four occasions to undertake research on a range of human rights issues, and to participate in a workshop assessing the ethical implications of scientists' involvement in the covert chemical and biological warfare program of the 1980s and in a conference on crime investigation and human rights.

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