The politics of anti-corruption enforcement in South Africa

The criminalisation of corruption recognises that the misuse of official office for private gain exacts a detrimental and distorting effect on a country's social and economic development. This is especially acute in countries undergoing rapid political system transitions. In an effort to combat corruption, governments have come under increasing pressure to enhance the monitoring and oversight of public institutions through stringent intra and inter-institutional checks. In South Africa, the evidence clearly shows that concrete and incremental steps have been introduced since the country's democratic transition to regulate malfeasance in the public sector through heightened monitoring, prevention, investigation and prosecution measures. Despite these measures, intra and inter-institutional analysis of anti-corruption enforcement indicates that the integrity of this approach, informed by principle-agent accountability arrangements, can be compromised or side-lined by collective action efforts that undermine the effectiveness of anti-corruption mechanisms. This reflects a politicisation of anti-corruption enforcement.     

Crime, conflict and politics in transition-era South Africa

Despite the potentially catastrophic repercussions of SouthAfrica’s violent crime epidemic, little progress has beenmade in understanding why violence has persisted and even escalatedsince the end of apartheid in 1994. Adopting an historical approachthat highlights the persistence of urban violence throughoutthe twentieth century, this article focuses on the criminaldimensions of the ‘political’ conflicts of the 1980sand 1990s. The advent of democracy was not in itself sufficientto erase a deeply entrenched culture of violence produced bydecades of repressive racial policing, violent crime and socialconflict. Moreover, politicized hostilities and the continuingdeterioration of law and order structures in the final yearsof apartheid gave birth to various groups that engaged in criminalviolence and provided favourable conditions for well establishedcriminal networks. Such elements were unlikely to put down theirguns and relinquish power simply because politicians declaredthe fighting to be over. Situating transition-era violence withinits historic context and broadening the narrow conception of‘political’ conflict enable us to better understandboth this fractious period and the violence that continues toafflict South Africa.     

Between transitional justice and politics: Reparations in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Reparations are a major component of transitional justice in the aftermath of widespread abuse. However, the implementation of reparations programmes often follows the logic of transitional politics, where short-term political interests trump victims’ rights. Using the South African case as a cautionary tale, this article shows that reparations are susceptible to political instrumentalisation and evaluates the role of international redress norms in safeguarding victims’ rights. Civil society groups have used the right to reparations as a basis for political contestation of inadequate reparations programmes and focused primarily on the broadening of redress norms. However, the existing international legislation fails to protect victims’ rights to reparations from political manoeuvring. In conclusion, the article highlights the need for international redress norms to be consolidated and made more concrete in order to more effectively circumscribe the scope states have to avoid meeting their reparations obligations.     

South Africa,the South Atlantic and the international politics of Antarctica

Existing analyses of South African foreign policy have neglected the geopolitical and legal dimensions of the Antarctic and South Atlantic. Emphasis will be placed on three aspects ‐ South Africa and the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS); the ongoing debates about a South Atlantic security pact in the 1960s and 1970s and the international condemnation of South Africa by the Developing World in the 1980s. The article concludes with a examination of future prospects for the only African country involved in the polar continent.     

South Africa and Myanmar: Beware the politics of perfidy

The article examines the repressive actions of the government of Myanmar, focusing on its continuing incarceration of a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, and questions the diplomatic route South Africa has chosen in terms of its relations with the country.     

Political opposition and the challenges of a dominant party system: The democratic alliance in South Africa

The African National Congress enjoys a position of leviathan-like dominance in South Africa. In official opposition stands the Democratic Alliance whose support has risen considerably since South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994. The white electorate strongly favours the party over its main rival, the Freedom Front Plus. The coloured community in the Western Cape has also given the Democratic Alliance its support. Although the party has done well in attracting the support of ethnic minority groups it has not been so successful among the African electorate. In accounting for the success of the Democratic Alliance this article considers three themes: firstly, the reasons why white voters, especially Afrikaners, shifted their support to the party; secondly, the brand of South African patriotism now used by the party to promote the primacy of a non-racial South African identity; and finally, the party's understanding of political opposition and the obstacles that exist to it making further electoral progress.     

Opposition politics in Malawi: hopeful signs amid the warnings

Across Africa, governments are either peacefully and legitimately ousted, or forced to share power, through the ballot box. In Malawi, the emergence of many political parties since the advent of a multiparty dispensation in 1993 signalled the flourishing of pluralism and opposition politics. However, in the May 2009 elections, the Malawi Congress Party and the United Democratic Front, which constituted the opposition, were largely rejected by the electorate in favour of President Bingu Mutharika's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), credited for his sound economic policies emulated internationally. The reduced presence in parliament of parties outside of the Democratic Progressive Party coalition is troubling. This development has stimulated debate on the opposition's role and ability to defend democratic governance, and the challenges facing it. On the other hand, the DPP's landslide victory has to some degree demonstrated that it is possible to ‘de-regionalise’ and ‘de-ethinicise’ the configuration and alignment of political interests and forces, confirming for other African countries that the analysis of African politics need not be oversimplified into ethnic and cultural terms as is often the case. This paper contends that democratic governance is promoted by a credible opposition that effectively acts as an alternative government. Therefore, there is need for addressing the major factors that militate against its operations to enable it play its rightful role in Malawi's emerging democracy.     

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.     

Chinese eyes on Africa: Authoritarian flexibility versus democratic governance

This article seeks to shed more light on the consequences of China's aid to and trade with African states. It attempts to answer two questions: First, does China's ‘no-strings-attached’ policy in Africa constitute a challenge to Western aid paradigms? Second, is there as an emerging state-sponsored Chinese model of ‘effective governance’, guided by a south-south vision of mutuality, equality and reciprocity at work? It is argued that China's Africa watchers are cautious, not wanting to project any false hopes into bilateral relationships with African countries. In the light of China's reform experience, these analysts propose that indigenous contexts should determine what developmental model to choose. China is unwilling to force its experiences of ‘a market economy with Chinese characteristics’ upon other nations. The article concludes by arguing that, although not unproblematic, there is reason to be positive about China's higher profile in Africa.     

New Labour in the global economy: partisan politics and the social democratic model

Drawing on a framework developed by Geoffrey Garrett in his recent book Partisan Politics in the Global Economy , I examine the 'policy space' that is available for the social democratic project in the United Kingdom. Garrett is optimistic about the possibilities for reformism: he emphasises the ability of an 'encompassing' labour movement to exchange wage restraint for reformist policies. Given the absence of such an encompassing labour movement in the United Kingdom, his conclusion apparently offers little support to those seeking reformist measures in these circumstances. I discuss three reasons why Garrett's model may still be applicable in the British context. First, social democrats may be able to offer policies desirable to capital. Second, wage moderation may be possible without the existence of an encompassing labour movement. Third, and most ambitious, it may be possible to develop an encompassing labour movement within the United Kingdom. My tentative conclusion is that a variant of the Garrett model is potentially a plausible one for a reformist party in the United Kingdom.     

A democratic paradox: The communalisation of politics in Ceylon, 1911-1948

Contributions to the Anthropology of Iran. By Henry Field, Curator of Physical Anthropology, University of Chicago, December, 1939. Vol. 29, No. I, 508 pp., 22 text figures, 1 map. 9½” × 6½”. $5.50. Vol. 29, No. II, 198 pp., 4 text figures, 144 plates. 9½” × 6½”. $2.25. Maps A and B, Distribution of Tribes in Iraq and Western Iran, 10” × 24½”, with list of tribal names.

Once in Sinai. By J. M. C. Plowden (Madame Charles Jullien), with a foreword by Major C. S. Jarvis. 9” × 6”. XXV. + 302 pp. 18 Illustrations. 7 Sketch Maps and 1 fold‐in Map. Methuen and Co., Ltd. 1940. 12s. 6d.

La Turquie, Centre de Gravité des Balkans et du Proche Orient. By Gerard Tongas. Préface de S. E. M. Suad Davas. Pp. 276. 7¾” × 5¾”. Paris : Geuthner. 1939.

Gelawêj (Sirius). A Kurdish literary and cultural monthly magazine, 9¾” × 6¾” each number about 64 pp. Baghdad: Najah Press, December, 1939; January and February, 1940.

Rome and China. By F. J. Teggart. Pp. xii, 245; 14 Maps, 9½” × 6½”. University of California Press. 1939. 18s.

Mohammed and Charlemagne. By Henri Pirenne. Translated by Bernard Miall. Pp. 293. Allen and Unwin. London. 1939. 10s. 6d. net.

Jenghiz Khan. By C. C. Walker, Squadron‐Leader Royal Canadian Air Force. 10” × 6½”. Pp. 215. 7 Maps in Colour. London : Luzac. 1940. 17s. 6d.

What are the Jews? Their Significance and Position in the Modern World. By Rabbi Israel I. Mattuck, A.M., D.H.L. 7½” × 5½” Pp. 256. Hodder and Stoughton. 5s.

The Throne of the Gods. By A. Heim and A. Gansser. Translated by Eden and Freda Paul. 22 Plates, 18 Sketches in text, 11 musical items, and Relief Map. 233 pp. of text. 9½” × 6¼”. Macmillan. 21s

Cultural Relations on the Kansu‐Tibetan Border. By Robert B. Ekvall. University of Chicago Press. Pp. 87. $1.50.

A Cavalier in China. By Colonel A. W. S. Wingate, C.M.G. With a Foreword by Sir Francis Younghusband, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E. Illustrated. Pp. 327. Grayson. 1940. 15s.

Dersu the Trapper. Exploring, trapping, hunting in Ussuria. Translated from the Russian of V. K. 8½” × 6”. Secker and Warburg.

Shanghai and Tientsin. By F. C. Jones‐ With the co‐operation of certain members of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. 9” × 6”. Pp. x + 182. Five plans. Oxford University Press. 7s. 6d.

Warning Lights of Asia. By Gerald Samson. With 32 plates and 7 maps. Pp. xvii + 311. Robert Hale. 1940. 15s.

Memorandum on the Kahilu Sanctuary. By D'Arcy Weatherbe. (Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, Vol. XLI., No. I, August, 1939.)

The Arabic Listener. Published by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Printed in England by Stephen Austin and Sons, Ltd.

Climate and Ecliptic Tilt. By Brigadier N. M. McLeod, from the R.A. Journal, April, 1940.

A Winter in Arabia. By Freya Stark. 9¼” × 6½” Pp. xii + 328. Illustrations from the author's own collection of photographs and 3 maps. London : John Murray. 1940. 16s.     

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.