TRANSFORMATION: THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF ACADEMIA IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

The transformatory paradigm of post-apartheid South Africa hasleft few of the country's institutions free of critical scrutiny.Higher education has been no exception. As elsewhere in Africaunder new post-colonial governments, South African universitieshave a relatively high profile on the agenda of change. Thisinterest has been spurred not only by the ANC government's awarenessof its large share in the funding of universities but also becauseof the political imperatives engendered by the disaffectionagainst the historically white universities (HWU's) among itsyouth constituency. This article assesses the current interplaybetween universities and their new environment and focuses onthe following issues central to the debate on university transformation:the higher education heritage of apartheid; the impact of thechanging racial profile of students at HWU's; perceptions ofthe role of universities; affirmative action staffing policies;competing claims by universities, the government and the privatesector on scarce black and especially African human resources;the negative implications of the African brain drain from universitieson civil society; and the question of Afrocentrism versus Eurocentrism.Where relevant these issues are examined against the backdropof the African experience. In doing so a number of yet to beresolved problems are highlighted.     

ALIENS AND AIDS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA: THE MALAWI-SOUTH AFRICA DEBATE

Between 1988 and 1992, about 13,000 Malawian mine migrant workerswere repatriated from South Africa. The official reason givenwas that in the previous two years some 200 of them had testedHIV/AIDS positive. The South African Chamber of Mines requestedthe Malawi government to screen all the prospective migrantworkers from the country for HIV/AIDS before leaving for employmentin South Africa. The Malawi government refused, and the Chamberstopped recruiting labour from the country following a governmentban on the employment of foreigners with HIV/AIDS. Strong armtactics were employed in the repatriation of the Malawian workers,causing heated debates between the Chamber and the Malawi government,and the latter and its repatriated citizens. Within South Africaitself, opinion was divided. The Chamber wanted to keep itsMalawian workers for their skills, work discipline and lackof militancy. Some white conservative elements in the governmentdemanded the repatriation. They based their arguments on issuesof public health, emphasizing the risks the foreign workersposed to the local-especially the urban communities. A criticalanalysis of the issues involved, and the way the Malawians wererepatriated, suggests that HIV/AIDS was used as a smoke screen.The South African mining industry was going through a periodof crisis which necessitated massive retrenchment of workers,and especially foreigners. Desultory migrants were being replacedby career miners as part of the labour stabilization process.There was also a shift towards the recruitment of local workers.Malawi was no longer an important source of labour for the industry.     

THE UNITED NATIONS AND CONFLICT IN AFRICA SINCE THE COLD WAR

This article is a brief review of the United Nations' experiencein the prevention, management and resolution of conflict inAfrica between the end of the Cold War and mid-1998. It describesthe various partners with whom the United Nations has workedfor these purposes and the different functions involved—peacemaking,peacekeeping, electoral assistance and humanitarian relief.It assesses frankly the results the United Nations has achieved,giving it low marks for peacemaking (most peace settlementsin Africa have been mediated by non-UN actors) but higher marksfor peacekeeping (both the traditional variety and, especially,the new breed of multi-functional peacekeeping operations tohelp implement negotiated settlements), electoral assistanceand humanitarian operations. It examines critically the feasibilityof using multinational forces to protect humanitarian operationsin the middle of continuing conflict. It concludes by statingthe case for an integrated and properly coordinated approachby the international community as a whole to problems of conflictin Africa, and elsewhere.     

'ONE CHIEF, ONE VOTE': THE REVIVAL OF TRADITIONAL AUTHORITIES IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

During the apartheid era, chiefs were maligned as puppets ofbantustan rule. In ANC-related circles, it was widely assumedthat chieftaincy would not survive in the post apartheid era.But the institution of traditional leadership has proved highlyflexible. Rather than being phased out as relics of pre-modemtimes, chiefs are re-asserting themselves in the new South Africa.Chiefs have survived throughout this century with a strategyof shifting alliances. Towards the end of the 1980s, chiefswere re-orienting themselves towards the ANC, rightly perceivedas the new ruling party-in-waiting. Combining the resourcesof tradition with a discourse of liberation politics and development,they were able to explain constitutional and other legal guaranteesfor the position of traditional leaders and their representationsin the local, provincial and national administration. For itspart, the ANC had an interest in wooing chiefs to its side inorder to prevent the emergence of a conservative alliance wheretraditional leaders could join forces with the bantustan elites.The article analyses these developments, discusses the mainthemes of debate and concludes with a briefcase study of chieftaincyissues in the Northern Transvaal.     

THE RAJ RECONSIDERED: BRITISH INDIA's INFORMAL EMPIRE AND SPHERES OF INFLUENCE IN ASIA AND AFRICA

This provides a detailed explanation of how the Indian Empire was organised and run. But its main purpose is to argue that the British Indian Empire was in fact much larger than historians of the Raj normally realise because the Empire should be taken to include the Gulf Arab states, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, the Aden Protectorate and the British Somaliland protectorate.     

THE RENAISSANCE FACTOR IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF AFRICAN REGIONAL GOVERNANCE (1999-2008)

ABSTRACT

This article examines a likely South African hegemony in Africa between 1999 and 2008. Hegemony is admittedly difficult to define in African regionalism studies, as it is counter intuitive to Pan-Africanism discourse. However, this article aims to show that hegemony can be a credible argument in explaining the South African driven changes that occurred in African regionalism between 1999 and 2008. The article locates key characteristics which underpin arguments of South African hegemony during the study timeline. It argues that Thabo Mbeki's governance philosophy of African renaissance was the central piece of South African Africa foreign policy that distinguishes this period from any other before or after it. By establishing hegemonic credibility in South Africa's interaction with Africa in this period, the article demonstrates how South Africa was able to contribute to transformational governance changes in Africa. This also holds lessons for South African regional ascendancy in the future.     

POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN SOUTH AFRICA

Public opinion suggests that political corruption is entrenchedin South Africa. Comparative experience does not indicate thatthe historical South African political environment was especiallylikely to nurture a venal bureaucracy; as a fairly industrializedand extremely coercive state the apartheid order may have beenless susceptible to many of the forms of political corruptionanalysts have associated with other post-colonial developingcountries. Democratization has made government less secret,inhibiting corruption in certain domains but through extendinggovernment's activities opening up possibilities for abuse inothers. Today's authorities argue that the present extent ofcorruption is largely inherited and indeed certain governmentdepartments, notably those concerned with security and the homelands,as well as the autonomous homeland administrations themselves,had a history of routine official misbehaviour. After describingthe distribution and nature of corruption in South African publicadministration this article concludes that a substantial proportionof modern corruption occurs in regional administrations andcertainly embodies a legacy from the homeland civil services.A major source of financial misappropriation in the old centralgovernment, secret defence procurement, no longer exists butcorruption is stimulated by new official practices and freshdemands imposed upon the bureaucracy including discriminatorytendering, political solidarity, and the expansion of citizenentitlements. Though much contemporary corruption is inheritedfrom the past, the simultaneous democratization and restructuringof the South African state makes it very vulnerable to new formsof abuse in different locations.     

Studies in War-time Organisation: (2) THE RESIDENT MINISTRY IN WEST AFRICA

One of the purest types of "functional" organisation, initiatedfor purely temporary purposes, and, with the alteration in thewar situation, almost inevitably gravitating to more long-distanceplanning, is the Resident Ministry in West Africa. This articlewas written, at our invitation, by a member of Lord Swinton'sHeadquarters staff, who wishes it to be understood that he iswriting in a purely private capacity.     

A SELECT LIST OF ARTICLES ON AFRICA APPEARING IN NON-AFRICANIST PERIODICALS: January-March 1988

The full titles of journals indexed are listed at the end ofthis compilation.     

EUROPE AND THE PROMOTION OF DEMOCRACY IN POST COLD WAR AFRICA: HOW SERIOUS IS EUROPE AND FOR WHAT REASON?

The ending of the Cold War brought new topics on the agendaof the international aid donors. Questions of democracy andhuman rights were voiced with rising intensity not least bythe European Union and by individual European countries. However,when it came to implementing the ambitious principles, boththe EU and the bilateral donors lacked a ‘serious’commitment. This is indicated by European policies towards SouthAfrica, Kenya, Niger and Algeria. The policies of the Europeanstowards Africa in the 1990s have primarily been influenced bysecurity concerns and thus by the narrow national interestsof individual donors. This is particularly manifest in the caseof France which has a dominating position within the developmentcooperation of the EU. Thus, only in very few exceptional instancesis it in the national interest of European donor states to promotemoral issues such as democracy and respect for human rights.In the 1990s such themes have become little more than the rhetoricof politicians and treaties, just as it was during the ColdWar.     

FROM 'NATIONHOOD' TO REGIONALISM TO THE NORTH WEST PROVINCE: 'BOPHUTHATSWANANESS' AND THE BIRTH OF THE 'NEW' SOUTH AFRICA

Although majority rule has been achieved in South Africa, thefinal years of one ‘independent’ bantustan, namelyBophuthatswana, and their aftermath, illustrate the problemsof creating a unified identity. Ironically, in the death throesof apartheid, a Pandora's box of ethnic and regionalist claimswas opened. Although these claims were tied to the maintenanceof privileges gained by a tiny minority created through apartheidpolicy, Bophuthatswana had also been sustained by an ideologywhich, although at times highly contradictory, was also indicativeof the space given to twenty years of bantustan nation-building.This article provides a reinterpretation of these complex territoriesby showing how, in the 1990s, in the wake of fundamental politicalchanges in South Africa, the Bophuthatswana regime reshapedits nation-building discourse into a distinctive regionalistcoalition based upon socio-economic and ethnic criteria. Moreover,unlike previous approaches to the region, it shows how contestedterritorial claims were integral to this regionalist movement.Whilst the Bophuthatswana regime finally imploded and its regionalistcoalition was absorbed into South Africa's North West Province,the legacy of the bantustans for South Africa is replete withambiguity. In the post-apartheid era of transition to the NorthWest Province, some of these fault lines, termed ‘Bophuthatswananess’,are discussed. The continuing influence of their core of ‘Batswanaarbiters’ raises pertinent questions concerning the obstaclesto inclusive nation-building.