UNSC Membership Overview, South Africa

South Africa (Remeber, the First Lady just visited, paid for by our taxes)

Incidents of torture and extra judicial killings (read that as police sanctioned murders) in 2010 were up from previous years. Increased incidents of torture and extrajudicial executions by police were reported in 2010. Refugees and migrants continued to suffer discrimination and displacement in large-scale incidents of violence.

Advocates of housing rights were threatened and attacked with impunity. High levels of violence against women and girls were reported, along with failures by the authorities to provide adequate support to survivors of such abuse. An estimated 5.7 million people were living with HIV, with women continuing to be disproportionately affected.

High levels of violence against women and girls continued to be reported. In June, the South African Medical Research Council published results of a survey showing that more than two fifths of the men interviewed had been physically violent to an intimate partner.

Earlier this year heavily armed black South-African police stormed into a club with white patrons. It is clear that the purpose of this assault was to target the white patrons as can be seen on the video below. 15 of the assault victims were then loaded into a police vehicle and imprisoned until relatives arrived to pay fines (ransom) for them preventing the cops in their duty. Watch the horrible video. I do not know if the link below works, but the description should give enough of a taste.

http://www.rapport.co.za/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Polisie-skop-slaan-mense-20110226

An internal inspection of 430 police stations showed many were failing to comply with their obligations under the Domestic Violence Act (DVA).

Former National Police Commissioner and ex-President of Interpol, Jackie Selebi, was convicted on corruption charges in July 2010, for receiving (at least) R120 000 from alleged crime-syndicate boss, Glenn Agliott

Tenderpreneur is a local term that has been created to refer to individuals who enrich themselves through government tender contracts, mostly based on personal connections and corrupt relationships - although outright bribery might also take place - and sometimes involving an elected or politically-appointed official (or his or her family members) holding simultaneous business interests.

The State Department notes that South Africa is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Children are trafficked mainly within the country. Girls are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude; boys are forced to work in street vending, food service, begging, criminal activities, and agriculture. The tradition of ukuthwala, is the forced marriage of girls as young as 12 to adult men and is still being practiced today. Nigerian syndicates dominate the commercial sex trade within the country, and send South African women to the United States for exploitation in domestic servitude. The most recent report from the State Department admits that the “Government of South Africa does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking”.