political challenges<\/a><\/strong> – like the aforementioned – have a direct and impactful effect on the country’s overall economic outlook.<\/p>\nIn December, when reacting to the market shake-up caused by Ramaphosa’s scandal, Busi Mavuso, the CEO of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), said that in the future, all foreign stakeholders should be ensured that government institutions and civil society can remain robust and capable despite political infighting or instability.<\/p>\n
The Bureau for Economic Research (BER) also reported that the political climate of South Africa is a major obstacle to investment, with 83% of manufacturers in the country citing the political climate as a concern.<\/p>\n
According to the Word Economic Forum’s (WEF) latest Global Risk Report, local business executives have also listed political issues and potential state collapse as a result of compounding crises among the biggest fears for the year ahead.<\/p>\n
The WEF’s report analysed 12,000 business leaders from 121 countries – South Africa is one of only three countries to have a state collapse as the biggest perceived risk facing the country.<\/p>\n
The rule of law<\/strong><\/p>\nThe country’s rule of law has also come under question, with Zuma’s corruption trial suffering frequent delays, HRW said.<\/p>\n
“One of the reasons for the delays was caused by his appeal in June (2022) to the Constitutional Court against the Supreme Court’s dismissal of his special plea to remove the lead state prosecutor, Billy Downer, whom he accused of lacking independence and impartiality,” said Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n
“The Pietermaritzburg High Court was supposed to resume the trial of the case on October 17 but postponed the trial to January 2023 to allow the presiding judge to consider whether he should still be on the case,” said the group.<\/p>\n
HRW added that the ex-president has also taken aim at journalists for allegedly publishing documents containing his medical information without the permission of the National Director of Public Prosecutions, and has also turned this attention to Ramaphosa himself, trying to privately prosecute the standing president as an accessory after the fact.<\/p>\n
Police<\/strong><\/p>\nMembers of the South African Police Services continue to violate rights with little accountability, reported HRW.<\/p>\n
Cases of police misconduct include the acquittal of four police officers in the killing of a bystander shot during student protests at the University of Witswatersrand in March 2021.<\/p>\n
In a separate case in August 2022, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate announced an investigation into an incident captured on video footage of police officers assaulting an unarmed man in the Western Cape, reported HRW.<\/p>\n
Further failures<\/strong><\/p>\nThe government’s efforts to curb xenophobic violence have also yet to yield tangible improvement in the protection of migrants, added the group.<\/p>\n
“Anti-foreigner groups perpetuate the unsubstantiated notion that foreigners are responsible for unemployment and crimes in the country. Women and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) community continue to face abuses, including murder, assault, and harassment.”<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organisation that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. It was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in the US.<\/p>\n
The organisation focuses on issues such as civil and political rights, economic, social, and cultural rights, and international humanitarian law. It publishes reports and conducts investigations into human rights in countries across the globe.<\/p>\n
Many of South Africa’s founding civil liberties and human rights are enshrined in the Bill of Rights as part of the country’s Consitution. Rights include freedom of expression, equality, and the right to education, healthcare, and property.<\/p>\n
It also prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and other factors. The Bill of Rights is considered one of the most progressive in the world and has been cited as a model for other countries.<\/p>\n
Despite its standards, there are various instances of it being infringed.<\/p>\n
\nRead: Hammer blows for consumers in South Africa keep coming<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recent data from the latest Human Rights Watch World Report for 2023 shows that social and economic goals are lagging behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":641819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26,17735],"class_list":["post-656777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline","tag-human-rights-watch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656777"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":656877,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656777\/revisions\/656877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}