Southern Africa – Growing Authoritarianism Threatens Rights

Johannesburg — Several governments across Southern Africa grew increasingly authoritarian and intolerant of dissent throughout 2024, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2025. The authorities adopted heavy-handed tactics that eroded civic space and the electoral process by harassing activists and journalists, introducing laws that contravened human rights, weaponizing the justice system against political opponents, and at times violently repressing protests.

For the 546-page world report, in its 35th edition, Human Rights Watch reviewed human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In much of the world, Executive Director Tirana Hassan writes in her introductory essay, governments cracked down and wrongfully arrested and imprisoned political opponents, activists, and journalists. Armed groups and government forces unlawfully killed civilians, drove many from their homes, and blocked access to humanitarian aid. In many of the more than 70 national elections in 2024, authoritarian leaders gained ground with their discriminatory rhetoric and policies.

“Governments are targeting political opponents, dissidents, activists, civil society at large, and the media using tactics that violate fundamental freedoms and flout governments’ human rights obligations,” said Allan Ngari, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Authorities should be doing more to insulate institutions and principles central to the functioning of democracies from exploitation and unwarranted attacks.”

International observers raised serious concerns about the credibility of Mozambique’s October 9 elections, which were marred by irregularities, allegations of fraud, and widespread abuses against journalists and activists. Security forces violently repressed post-election protesters, killing dozens and injuring hundreds of people, including children. In South Africa, elections were peaceful but the campaign period was marked by politicians’ increased use of anti-immigrant rhetoric. Governments in Eswatini, Zambia, and Zimbabwe used the justice system to bring politically motivated prosecutions against political opponents, opposition party members, and critics of the government. Angola’s president signed into law a bill that provides prison terms of up to 25 years for participating in protests that result in vandalism and service disruptions; and another bill that permits excessive government control over media, civil society organizations, and other private institutions. Zimbabwe is likely to adopt a bill that would allow the authorities to cancel the registration of organizations deemed to have a “political affiliation” with little or no recourse to judicial review.

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“Governments in Southern Africa should take urgent steps to end the spiraling attacks on rights and freedoms,” Ngari said. “They should instead commit themselves to holding officials implicated in serious abuses to account in fair trials.”

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