South Africa

A look at the historical development of the Commonwealth and the effect the Zimbabwe issue, most recently, but also the issue of South Africa under apartheid, had on it.     

South Africa Revisited

This article represents the second half of the well-known historian'saddress on the 30th March. Professor Macmillan visited Eastand South Africa in the summer of 1949, for the first time fornearly 20 years. In the interval he had visited and lived inWest Africa.     

India and South Africa: Shifting priorities

Ties between India and South Africa have grown rapidly over the past few years. But despite close collaboration on a range of issues and growing trade and investment ties, the relationship is a long way from reaching its full potential and there are still areas of difference between the countries. Philip Alves examines how the relationship has evolved historically, particularly since 1994, both politically and economically, and where it might be going.     

New South Africa Speak: race talk in an undergraduate debate on racialisation in post-apartheid South Africa

Working with a set of theoretical concepts from critical race theory, this article examines perspectives on the impact of micro-aggressions and systemic inequality, as elicited during on online debate among undergraduate students. The debate centred on the degree to which white South Africans may legitimately identify as Africans. This topic served as a means of stimulating talk about the effects of racialisation in post-apartheid South Africa. During the analysis, the arguments that emerged from the online debate were analysed within a framework of white talk, referred to as New South Africa Speak. All contributions to the debate were measured against the discursive forms and functions that characterise New South Africa Speak. The findings are reported in terms of: During the conclusion the potential relevance of these findings to ongoing protest movements at South African universities is considered.     

A critique of South Africa: The solution

South Africa: The Solution by LEON LOUVV and FRANCES KENDALL Amagi Publications, Bisho (Ciskei), 1986. xvi plus 237 pages including maps, figures, diagrams, illustrations, notes, appendices and bibliography. R14,95 paperback.     

A critique of South Africa: The solution

South Africa: The Solution by Leon Louw and Frances Kendall Amagi Publications, Bisho (Ciskei), 1986. xvi plus 237 pages including maps, figures, diagrams, illustrations, notes, appendices and bibliography. R14,95 paperback.     

The South Africa of Today

This article is based on the address given by Miss Thompsonat the Africa Day Conference held at the Royal Society of Artson November 17, 1956.     

Fighting Tuberculosis in South Africa

Dr. Broderick is secretary of the South African National TuberculosisAssociation which is aiming at providing 8, 000 beds for tuberculotics of all races over and above what South African hospitalauthorities are planning to do in the next few years. He isa former Deputy Director of the Medical Service of the UnionDefence Force, and attended the Commonwealth Health and Tuberculosisconference in London in June.     

Race and international relations: Brazil and South Africa

The study examines the perennial effort by African leaders and their people to attain a union government of Africa and eventually, a United States of Africa. Amidst a history of actual work and pragmatic choices by Pan-Africanists in the past who demonstrated better commitment and industry to this vision, the project cannot be dismissed as frivolous. Details of the recent Accra Declaration that concluded the African Union Summit in July 2007 reveal inherently difficult choices that African leaders have to make. These include tackling issues of sovereignty, territoriality, national laws versus sub-regional and African Union protocols that pervade constitutional arrangements across the continent. Issues of finance, engaging the African people, the political will and commitment of political elites are vital ingredients for the integration effort. The study reflects on the demand for a radical approach in attaining outcomes but opts for moderation backed with pragmatic choices. Even then, the regional economic communities (RECs), considered pillars of the integration process, must be well structured and given pronounced visibility and viability in order to achieve results.     

South Africa and Japan: maintaining a difficult friendship

Japan's economic and political relationship with South Africa has been characterised historically by ambiguity. Throughout the twentieth century, economic ties were underpinned by mercantilist and strategic considerations. During apartheid, this placed Japan in an uneasy position as it sought to balance a relationship of expediency with wider foreign policy objectives in the rest of Africa and beyond. The demise of apartheid created the space for new forms of engagement centred on the pursuit of cognate goals. This has seen the intensification and deepening of economic ties in particular. Yet relations, especially at the political and diplomatic levels, have also been more complex than anticipated, and in recent years, the rise in Africa of other players from Asia and the Global South has had a bearing on South Africa–Japan ties. In this paper, it is argued that two related dynamics pivoting on policy elites’ changing conceptions (or self-view) of the nature of the state they are running and its place in the wider world order help explain the post-apartheid evolution of the South Africa–Japan relationship. First, there has been an apparent shift in South African foreign policy elites’ self-view, mediated by a changing systemic context. The development and manifestation over time of a stronger Global South self-conception in South African foreign policy, fashioned in juxtaposition to what have been considered in the past key Global North relationships, had direct consequences for South Africa–Japan ties. Second, meso- and micro-level dynamics – the role of the general operations in the diplomatic (i.e. bureaucratic) arena, and the personalities and shifting political preferences of individual executive leaders – had major impacts on how South Africa engaged with Japan in the past two decades.     

Promoting business in Africa: How Nepad can help

The formation of the Nepad Business Group has provided a platform for South African business to use its skills to promote and develop business on the continent.     

Africa unknown: Addressing the effects of an alienating education amongst learners in South Africa

Abstract

The article argues for the Africanisation of the South African education system, most critically at high school and tertiary levels. Using both experiential and theoretical reasoning, it seeks to present a compelling argument for the value of teaching our children, using methodologies, examples and stories they can relate to. It argues that this relatability is what will best develop the cognition of learners and better equip them to turn knowledge into action. The South African education system has often been seen as lacking a critical thinking and problem-solving element, and the article argues that this limitation is embedded in the abstractness of our curricula. The article presents a short case study highlighting just how little about Africa some of our best learners know. It ends by offering practical suggestions about how the education system could incorporate critical African knowledge in its learning models.