Abstract
This chapter looks at South Africa from a regional perspective. It contends that although South Africa is willing to act as a leader in Africa, and has the political, diplomatic and economic means to do so, the country’s dominance in Africa is not only contested, especially by rival regional powers, such as Nigeria and by African elites who perceive the country to be un-African and pro-West; but is also incomplete. The chapter argues that acceptance of South Africa’s status as a leader on the African continent is by no means uncontested, especially outside of the immediate Southern African sub-region. There are clear regional dimensions to how South Africa is able to project its leadership ambitions and credentials in Africa.
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Notes
- 1.
Originally conceived by the Senegalese scholar Cheikh Anta Diop, the idea of the African Renaissance was popularised by Mbeki.
- 2.
This point was made during a discussion with a senior South African diplomat.
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
Mbeki was the intellectual architect of NEPAD and its first chairman, and, from the outset was determined to ensure that NEPAD (and later the AU Parliament) would be headquartered in South Africa.
- 5.
The Inclusive Government was disbanded following ZANU-PF’s overwhelming victory in the 2013 general election.
- 6.
In contrast, the presence of South African troops in other war-torn regions such as the DRC and Darfur in western Sudan is backed by UN resolutions.
- 7.
Since coming into effect in 2000, the SADC Protocol on Trade has served as the principal mechanism driving economic integration and tariff liberalisation in the region. The tariff reforms enshrined in the Protocol have been implemented through a schedule of annual tariff phase downs which, in the case of most signatories (but not South Africa), have been heavily back-loaded with the majority of the tariff reduction occurring in the latter stages of the implementation period.
- 8.
The new SACU treaty, which replaced the previous SACU agreement of 1969, has facilitated a democratisation of SACU policies and decision-making processes. The revised agreement also paved the way for a revision of the SACU revenue sharing formula used to determine revenue allocations from the common revenue pool to the SACU Member States.
- 9.
An influential affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, which is, in turn, a member of the ruling ANC alliance.
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Soko, M., Balchin, N. (2016). South Africa’s Quest for Leadership in Africa: Achievements, Constraints and Dilemmas. In: Kingah, S., Quiliconi, C. (eds) Global and Regional Leadership of BRICS Countries. United Nations University Series on Regionalism, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22972-0_13
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