Strengthened by weapons from Libya, the rebellion beginning in Mali incJanuary 2012 finally gave a Tuareg-dominated irredentist movement control of Northern Mali in the fourth rebellion since independence. The Movement for the National Liberation (MNLA) called this area Azawad, proclaiming it as independent. Although it was to be a multiethnic country, the MNLA remained dominated by the Tuareg. Discontent among Malian officers during the fight against the rebels produced a coup d'état, undermining the military command structure, which greatly contributed to the rebels' success. An unavowed alliance existed with AQIM (Al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb) and the Tuareg Islamist group Ansar Dine. The latter and the AQIM-offshoot, MUJAO (the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa), eventually drove the MNLA from Northern Mali. Increasingly, the Islamists imposed an extreme version of sharia, adding to the mass flight of refugees. Negotiations between the interim Malian government, the MNLA and the Ansar Dine still continued until the latter and AQIM moved towards Southern Mali. The perceived threat made the Malian government request French assistance. The intervention gradually drove the Islamists from the country, enabling the restoration of the state in Northern Mali. The conflict reveals underlying features of the political situation in Northern Mali, and highlights how the Tuareg and NorthernMalians have responded to the state's shortcomings through rebellion. Access to the state passes through privileged individuals. Rebels have been drawn closer to the state after conflicts, with only some benefitting from this arrangement. This is mirrored at a local level, with public figures and their followers enjoying the closest relation to the state. Producing widespread discontent, this situation is marked by insecurity because of a weak state presence. Misgivings have fed into new rebellions. Weak state control also allowed the AQIM to engage in hostage taking and for smuggling to expand. This volatile situation produced the latest rebellion. An improved connection to the state for Northern Mali and a strong state presence are necessary to counteract the factors responsible for repeated conflict.
{"title":"NORTHERN MALI 2012: THE SHORT-LIVED TRIUMPH OF IRREDENTISM","authors":"Ole Martin Gaasholt","doi":"10.35293/SRSA.V35I2.139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/SRSA.V35I2.139","url":null,"abstract":"Strengthened by weapons from Libya, the rebellion beginning in Mali incJanuary 2012 finally gave a Tuareg-dominated irredentist movement control of Northern Mali in the fourth rebellion since independence. The Movement for the National Liberation (MNLA) called this area Azawad, proclaiming it as independent. Although it was to be a multiethnic country, the MNLA remained dominated by the Tuareg. Discontent among Malian officers during the fight against the rebels produced a coup d'état, undermining the military command structure, which greatly contributed to the rebels' success. An unavowed alliance existed with AQIM (Al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb) and the Tuareg Islamist group Ansar Dine. The latter and the AQIM-offshoot, MUJAO (the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa), eventually drove the MNLA from Northern Mali. Increasingly, the Islamists imposed an extreme version of sharia, adding to the mass flight of refugees. Negotiations between the interim Malian government, the MNLA and the Ansar Dine still continued until the latter and AQIM moved towards Southern Mali. The perceived threat made the Malian government request French assistance. The intervention gradually drove the Islamists from the country, enabling the restoration of the state in Northern Mali. The conflict reveals underlying features of the political situation in Northern Mali, and highlights how the Tuareg and NorthernMalians have responded to the state's shortcomings through rebellion. Access to the state passes through privileged individuals. Rebels have been drawn closer to the state after conflicts, with only some benefitting from this arrangement. This is mirrored at a local level, with public figures and their followers enjoying the closest relation to the state. Producing widespread discontent, this situation is marked by insecurity because of a weak state presence. Misgivings have fed into new rebellions. Weak state control also allowed the AQIM to engage in hostage taking and for smuggling to expand. This volatile situation produced the latest rebellion. An improved connection to the state for Northern Mali and a strong state presence are necessary to counteract the factors responsible for repeated conflict.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44221447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Much of what we know about Zimbabwe's liberation war heroes and heroines is associated with the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)'s recognition of individuals who defended its hold on power. However, of late, an upsurge in factionalism in the party has resulted in increasing reference to heroism as a means to exert factional dominance. An understanding of how this has been done can be used to explain ZANU-PF factional dynamics. Current studies call for the study of factionalism to focus on intra-party group dynamics instead of the traditional organisation forms of factions. It is in this context that this study argues that survival or fall of factions within (ZANU-PF) is framed around issues of heroism that is around one's perceived contribution or non-contribution to the liberation struggle. This article demonstrates this growing phenomenon in ZANU-PF veteran leaders whose status has been reshaped by new political moments as factionalism intensified. Inlight of rising factionalism, we argue that, war hero/heroine status in ZANU-PF is not permanent, but is highly shaped by obtaining factional political moments.
{"title":"THE USE OF HEROISM IN THE ZIMBABWE AFRICAN NATIONAL UNION-PATRIOTIC FRONT (ZANU-PF) INTRA-PARTY FACTIONAL DYNAMICS","authors":"T. Masiya, Godfrey Maringira","doi":"10.35293/SRSA.V39I2.278","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/SRSA.V39I2.278","url":null,"abstract":"Much of what we know about Zimbabwe's liberation war heroes and heroines is associated with the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)'s recognition of individuals who defended its hold on power. However, of late, an upsurge in factionalism in the party has resulted in increasing reference to heroism as a means to exert factional dominance. An understanding of how this has been done can be used to explain ZANU-PF factional dynamics. Current studies call for the study of factionalism to focus on intra-party group dynamics instead of the traditional organisation forms of factions. It is in this context that this study argues that survival or fall of factions within (ZANU-PF) is framed around issues of heroism that is around one's perceived contribution or non-contribution to the liberation struggle. This article demonstrates this growing phenomenon in ZANU-PF veteran leaders whose status has been reshaped by new political moments as factionalism intensified. Inlight of rising factionalism, we argue that, war hero/heroine status in ZANU-PF is not permanent, but is highly shaped by obtaining factional political moments.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44258425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The problem of the 21st century in the knowledge domain is best rendered as the ‘epistemic line’. It cascades directly from William E B Dubois’s ‘colour line’ which haunted the 20th century and provoked epic struggles for political decolonisation. The connection between the ‘colour line’ and the ‘epistemic line’ is in the racist denial of the humanity of those who became targets of enslavement and colonisation. The denial of humanity automatically disqualified one from epistemic virtue. This conceptual study, therefore explores in an overview format, how Africa in particular and the rest of the Global South in general became victims of genocides, epistemicides, linguicides, and culturecides. It delves deeper into the perennial problems of ontological exiling of the colonised from their languages, cultures, names, and even from themselves while at the same time highlighting how the colonised refused to succumb to the ‘silences’ and fought for epistemic freedom. The article introduces such useful analytical concepts as ‘epistemic freedom’ as opposed to ‘academic freedom’; ‘provincialisation’; ‘deprovincialisation’; ‘epistemological decolonisation’; ‘intellectual extroversion’; and ‘epistemic dependence’. It ends with an outline of five-ways-forward in the African struggles for epistemic freedom predicated on (i) return to the base/locus of enunciation; (ii) shifting the geo-and bio-of knowledge/moving the centre; (iii) decolonising the normative foundation of critical theory; (iv) rethinking thinking itself; and finally (v) learning to unlearn in order to relearn.
{"title":"THE DYNAMICS OF EPISTEMOLOGICAL DECOLONISATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY: TOWARDS EPISTEMIC FREEDOM","authors":"S. Ndlovu-Gatsheni","doi":"10.35293/SRSA.V40I1.268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/SRSA.V40I1.268","url":null,"abstract":"The problem of the 21st century in the knowledge domain is best rendered as the ‘epistemic line’. It cascades directly from William E B Dubois’s ‘colour line’ which haunted the 20th century and provoked epic struggles for political decolonisation. The connection between the ‘colour line’ and the ‘epistemic line’ is in the racist denial of the humanity of those who became targets of enslavement and colonisation. The denial of humanity automatically disqualified one from epistemic virtue. This conceptual study, therefore explores in an overview format, how Africa in particular and the rest of the Global South in general became victims of genocides, epistemicides, linguicides, and culturecides. It delves deeper into the perennial problems of ontological exiling of the colonised from their languages, cultures, names, and even from themselves while at the same time highlighting how the colonised refused to succumb to the ‘silences’ and fought for epistemic freedom. The article introduces such useful analytical concepts as ‘epistemic freedom’ as opposed to ‘academic freedom’; ‘provincialisation’; ‘deprovincialisation’; ‘epistemological decolonisation’; ‘intellectual extroversion’; and ‘epistemic dependence’. It ends with an outline of five-ways-forward in the African struggles for epistemic freedom predicated on (i) return to the base/locus of enunciation; (ii) shifting the geo-and bio-of knowledge/moving the centre; (iii) decolonising the normative foundation of critical theory; (iv) rethinking thinking itself; and finally (v) learning to unlearn in order to relearn.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43461484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article analyses relations between South Africa's national and provincial governments on foreign affairs over the past 20 years. It departs from the premise that the idea of relative autonomy ofsubnational governments, which is embedded in South Africa's 1996 constitution, has remained largely underdeveloped owing to factors such as inherent ambiguities in the constitutional design, a strong centralising ethos on the part of the ruling party and generally weak provincial capacities. Consequently, relations between the national and provincial governments on foreign affairs have been low-key, predominantly focused on technical matters and generally of a top-down nature. Provincial governments have been virtually absent from the foreign policy-making process despite constitutional provisions to that effect. What is more, the article notes that intergovernmental processes intended to coordinate provincial international relations and align them with national development priorities and South Africa's foreign policy have for the most part been ineffective and inefficient.
{"title":"INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN SOUTH AFRICA: A TWENTY YEAR REVIEW","authors":"F. Nganje","doi":"10.35293/SRSA.V37I2.242","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/SRSA.V37I2.242","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses relations between South Africa's national and provincial governments on foreign affairs over the past 20 years. It departs from the premise that the idea of relative autonomy ofsubnational governments, which is embedded in South Africa's 1996 constitution, has remained largely underdeveloped owing to factors such as inherent ambiguities in the constitutional design, a strong centralising ethos on the part of the ruling party and generally weak provincial capacities. Consequently, relations between the national and provincial governments on foreign affairs have been low-key, predominantly focused on technical matters and generally of a top-down nature. Provincial governments have been virtually absent from the foreign policy-making process despite constitutional provisions to that effect. What is more, the article notes that intergovernmental processes intended to coordinate provincial international relations and align them with national development priorities and South Africa's foreign policy have for the most part been ineffective and inefficient.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45579529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study examines the trajectory of South Africa's post-apartheid foreign policy by establishing the extent of change or consistency in its implementation since 1994. Under the ruling African National Congress (ANC), South Africa has emerged as a promising international actor, particularly within the Southern African region and on the African continent in general. The authors provide a historical analysis of the major trajectories of foreign policy articulation under the administrations of Presidents Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma spanning the period 1994 to 2018. In investigating the conception and execution of foreign policy under these dispensations, the authors unravel a consistent but skewed pattern of national role conception that underscores Pretoria’s vision to be a major actor in international affairs, both regionally and globally. We conclude that South Africa’s foreign policy during this period was marked by Mandela’s altruism, Mbeki’s Afrocentrism and the antediluvian signature of Zuma.
{"title":"Change or Consistency? A Historical Overview of South Africa's Post-apartheid Foreign Policy","authors":"Lona Gqiza, Olusola Ogunnubi","doi":"10.35293/srsa.v41i2.308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v41i2.308","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the trajectory of South Africa's post-apartheid foreign policy by establishing the extent of change or consistency in its implementation since 1994. Under the ruling African National Congress (ANC), South Africa has emerged as a promising international actor, particularly within the Southern African region and on the African continent in general. The authors provide a historical analysis of the major trajectories of foreign policy articulation under the administrations of Presidents Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma spanning the period 1994 to 2018. In investigating the conception and execution of foreign policy under these dispensations, the authors unravel a consistent but skewed pattern of national role conception that underscores Pretoria’s vision to be a major actor in international affairs, both regionally and globally. We conclude that South Africa’s foreign policy during this period was marked by Mandela’s altruism, Mbeki’s Afrocentrism and the antediluvian signature of Zuma.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46126372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This, the second edition of the 40th volume of the Strategic Review, straddles a number of these above-mentioned focal areas regional security, epistemological shifts and state making. A number of articles in this edition come from the 2017 Limpopo/Gauteng Colloquium of the South African Association of Political Studies hosted by the Universities of Limpopo and Venda through the able hands of Dr Kgothatso Shai (UL) and Prof Richard Molapo (UNIVEN), and with the generous support of the National Institute for Social Science and Humanities. While most of the articles focus on the geographic area called southern Africa, two articles discuss issues that do not emanate from this area, but whose article on migration and terrorism draws from the experience of West Africa, but its insights should attract the attention of southern Africanists already worried about the rise of terrorism in Mozambique and on the Indian Ocean coast generally. Its arguments about the role of networks, inter-linkages of various kinds and globalisation-induced migration as factors in the changing nature and character of terrorism may help southern African anticipate what seems to be an emerging terror factor in its regional conflict theatre.
{"title":"Editorial: The Continuity of Change","authors":"Siphamandla Zondi","doi":"10.35293/srsa.v40i2.151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v40i2.151","url":null,"abstract":"This, the second edition of the 40th volume of the Strategic Review, straddles a number of these above-mentioned focal areas regional security, epistemological shifts and state making. A number of articles in this edition come from the 2017 Limpopo/Gauteng Colloquium of the South African Association of Political Studies hosted by the Universities of Limpopo and Venda through the able hands of Dr Kgothatso Shai (UL) and Prof Richard Molapo (UNIVEN), and with the generous support of the National Institute for Social Science and Humanities. While most of the articles focus on the geographic area called southern Africa, two articles discuss issues that do not emanate from this area, but whose article on migration and terrorism draws from the experience of West Africa, but its insights should attract the attention of southern Africanists already worried about the rise of terrorism in Mozambique and on the Indian Ocean coast generally. Its arguments about the role of networks, inter-linkages of various kinds and globalisation-induced migration as factors in the changing nature and character of terrorism may help southern African anticipate what seems to be an emerging terror factor in its regional conflict theatre.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44527259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Professor Steven Freidman’s book on the challenges facing South Africa’s democracy comes at a time when the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) just hosted the highly contested national elections since 1994. Again, the book comes at a period where cut-throat power struggle politics of coalition governments at local government level are at their peak. The momentum and growth of opposition parties after 25 years of democracy in South Africa signal the growth and maturing of the ‘Rainbow Nation’ democracy. Opposition parties such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are in an expedition to influence the African National Congress (ANC) led government to amend or review the South African Constitution of 1996; aimed at addressing the triple-headed monster (unemployment, income inequality and poverty). This book is also released at a time when troubled African states such as Sudan and Zimbabwe had undergone coup d’état and violent national protests over democracy upliftment. This premise rightly coincides with Freidman’s contention that authoritative leaders particularly in Africa deploy democracy to win elections but they are unable to ostensibly operate within democratic norms (pp vii-ix). This reflection can be well aligned to the assertion of Kenyan public intellectual, legal expert and scholar, Professor Patrick Lumumba “democracy is a competition of ideas, sustained by the constant dialogue where the minority have their say and the majority have their way.”
{"title":"Steven Freidman, Power in Action: Democracy, Citizenship and Social Justice. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2018, 271pp.","authors":"V. M. Nkuna","doi":"10.35293/srsa.v41i2.310","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v41i2.310","url":null,"abstract":"Professor Steven Freidman’s book on the challenges facing South Africa’s democracy comes at a time when the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) just hosted the highly contested national elections since 1994. Again, the book comes at a period where cut-throat power struggle politics of coalition governments at local government level are at their peak. The momentum and growth of opposition parties after 25 years of democracy in South Africa signal the growth and maturing of the ‘Rainbow Nation’ democracy. Opposition parties such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are in an expedition to influence the African National Congress (ANC) led government to amend or review the South African Constitution of 1996; aimed at addressing the triple-headed monster (unemployment, income inequality and poverty). This book is also released at a time when troubled African states such as Sudan and Zimbabwe had undergone coup d’état and violent national protests over democracy upliftment. This premise rightly coincides with Freidman’s contention that authoritative leaders particularly in Africa deploy democracy to win elections but they are unable to ostensibly operate within democratic norms (pp vii-ix). This reflection can be well aligned to the assertion of Kenyan public intellectual, legal expert and scholar, Professor Patrick Lumumba “democracy is a competition of ideas, sustained by the constant dialogue where the minority have their say and the majority have their way.”","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46687459","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
1. Introduction The gains that can be attributed to the cause of human security since the end of apartheid are significant. The right to vote, to basic education and primary health care; the introduction of an extensive social security system that has lifted many people out of poverty; the provision of affordable housing and basic services to millions, are some of the undeniable achievements of 21 years of democracy. On the regional and international fronts, South Africa has shifted from being a source of insecurity to its neighbours to being an advocate for peace on the continent, playing a prominent mediation role in conflicts such as those in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Sudan. Yet the country remains dogged by unemployment and poverty, structural inequality in the economy, the failure of some state institutions to provide adequately for the needs of all people, and failures in the criminal justice system, to name several challenges. Moreover, South Africa's formal Pan-Africanist and internationalist posture has been sullied by recurring instances of violent attacks on migrants, many of whom have fled hardship in their own countries. It could be argued that human security has not prevailed, and might even be a waning value in the South African political and social fabric. Are we in fact, seeing a reversal of gains, and the return of the traditional security approach that had characterised the apartheid years? This commentary asks whether the human security agenda has been lost in the quagmire of political, economic and social challenges confronting South Africa, and if this is the case, what can be done to arrest the trend. 2. Africa's contribution to the global discourse on human security In the global discourse, 'human security' gained currency at a particular geo-political moment, soon after the end of the Cold War. At the time, South Africa's political transition was already underway, and ideas about what should replace the state-centred notion of apartheid, were an integral part of discussions. The poverty, racial discrimination, political repression and institutionalised violence that had characterised life for black people for centuries had been a focus of struggles and campaigns for decades. The state had clearly been a source of insecurity--this was conceded by the apartheid government during the negotiations in the early 1990s. The language in which discussions around a future security dispensation was framed, spoke resoundingly of a new era of 'freedom from fear' and 'freedom from want'--the language of human security. Whilst the United Nations' (UN) 1994 Human Development Report is often cited as a decisive moment in shifting the conceptual understanding of security, it was in fact part of a long continuum of global political thought and action. Anti-colonial struggles, the establishment of the UN, the international struggle against apartheid, all contained within them a desire to rid the world of phy
{"title":"HUMAN SECURITY IN SOUTH AFRICA","authors":"Sandy Africa","doi":"10.35293/SRSA.V37I1.219","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/SRSA.V37I1.219","url":null,"abstract":"1. Introduction The gains that can be attributed to the cause of human security since the end of apartheid are significant. The right to vote, to basic education and primary health care; the introduction of an extensive social security system that has lifted many people out of poverty; the provision of affordable housing and basic services to millions, are some of the undeniable achievements of 21 years of democracy. On the regional and international fronts, South Africa has shifted from being a source of insecurity to its neighbours to being an advocate for peace on the continent, playing a prominent mediation role in conflicts such as those in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Sudan. Yet the country remains dogged by unemployment and poverty, structural inequality in the economy, the failure of some state institutions to provide adequately for the needs of all people, and failures in the criminal justice system, to name several challenges. Moreover, South Africa's formal Pan-Africanist and internationalist posture has been sullied by recurring instances of violent attacks on migrants, many of whom have fled hardship in their own countries. It could be argued that human security has not prevailed, and might even be a waning value in the South African political and social fabric. Are we in fact, seeing a reversal of gains, and the return of the traditional security approach that had characterised the apartheid years? This commentary asks whether the human security agenda has been lost in the quagmire of political, economic and social challenges confronting South Africa, and if this is the case, what can be done to arrest the trend. 2. Africa's contribution to the global discourse on human security In the global discourse, 'human security' gained currency at a particular geo-political moment, soon after the end of the Cold War. At the time, South Africa's political transition was already underway, and ideas about what should replace the state-centred notion of apartheid, were an integral part of discussions. The poverty, racial discrimination, political repression and institutionalised violence that had characterised life for black people for centuries had been a focus of struggles and campaigns for decades. The state had clearly been a source of insecurity--this was conceded by the apartheid government during the negotiations in the early 1990s. The language in which discussions around a future security dispensation was framed, spoke resoundingly of a new era of 'freedom from fear' and 'freedom from want'--the language of human security. Whilst the United Nations' (UN) 1994 Human Development Report is often cited as a decisive moment in shifting the conceptual understanding of security, it was in fact part of a long continuum of global political thought and action. Anti-colonial struggles, the establishment of the UN, the international struggle against apartheid, all contained within them a desire to rid the world of phy","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44509174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：