The evolution of EU–South Africa relations: What influence on Africa?

South Africa and the European Union (EU) have a longstanding relationship. Their interaction has evolved through various phases, characterised simultaneously by ambitious partnerships coupled with a degree of wariness. As international dynamics change and Africa becomes an increasingly crucial player in global politics, the relationship between the EU and South Africa exerts a host of influences on how Africa and Europe relate to each other. This article discusses the evolution of EU–South Africa relations and highlights direct and indirect influences that this relationship has on the inter-regional partnership between Africa and Europe.     

Asymmetry as context: The rollercoaster of South Africa–US relations post 1994

The United States pictured a bright future with a strategic country when the new South African government took power in 1994. They envisioned a strong partnership in political, economic and security realms. The bilateral relationship did not turn out to be as easy as many in America might have envisioned. Despite notable camaraderie during the Mandela–Clinton administrations, there was a considerable downward swing in US–South African relations during the Bush administration. This situation has since appeared to reverse itself during the current Obama and Zuma administrations. This paper, through the lens of ‘asymmetry theory’ as developed by Brantly Womack, seeks to shed light on how a rollercoaster relationship such as this can go through such fluctuations and not end in extreme tension.     

The EU–South Africa Strategic Partnership: From bilateral to multilateral forums and the strategic value for South Africa

ABSTRACT

Strategic partnerships are seen as a means of elevating bilateral relations between two countries, or in the case of the European Union (EU), relations between an intergovernmental organisation and its 10 identified strategic partners. There is a growing body of analysis on the value of these strategic partnerships for the two partner states, yet just what role this partnership has within wider multilateral forums is an area for further discussion. This article explores the role that the EU–South Africa Strategic Partnership plays in shaping engagement between the bilateral partners in multilateral contexts. In reviewing the partnership over the course of its first decade, the article argues that South Africa has increasingly acknowledged its potential value. However, further interrogation on how to manage the complex intersection between bilateral and multilateral relations is called for if the strategic partnership is to be used to optimal effect as a tool of foreign policy.     

The Africanisation of Children's Rights in South Africa: Quo Vadis?

The article seeks to demonstrate how traditional African approaches to justice pervade the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008 (CJA) in ways that provide young offenders the possibility to have their dignity restored, by affording them an opportunity to take responsibility for their wrongful conduct. The article argues that this approach to justice underscores African values of Ubuntu and restorative justice in addressing offending in terms of the CJA. In the final analysis, the author argues that the successful implementation of these approaches will depend partly on how innovative officers in judicial proceedings are in using African models of justice, the values of the Constitution, and the lived experiences of children in conflict with the law.     

The EU–South Africa Strategic Partnership: Waning affection,persisting economic interests

ABSTRACT

Ten years after the coming into force of the EU–South Africa Strategic Partnership, this article takes stock of this partnership. Our aim, within this special issue, is to assess the EU’s perspective on its strategic partnership with South Africa, and in particular to look at economic and development cooperation within the partnership and to what extent European expectations of closer engagement have been met. Our analysis shows that economic interests have remained central to bilateral relations and the strategic partnership, even if some potential for economic engagement has remained unexploited. At the same time, the relationship has been quite tense in recent years, as bilateral ‘affection’ at the political level has waned. The implications for the partnership are weighed.     

The BRICS and the South Atlantic: Emerging arena for South–South cooperation

Over the past decade, power dynamics within the South Atlantic region have undergone significant changes. While the area has historically been dominated by North–South ties, both in terms of material flows and with respect to political influence, more recently there has been a surge in cooperation between developing countries within this space. As trade, investment and other forms of exchange and dialogue increase among actors from within the region (notably between South America and Africa) and with states located outside the region, the BRICS countries become more relevant to the South Atlantic. Individually, they have become relevant players in the South Atlantic's economic, political and security dimensions. Collectively, as inter-BRICS flows and political coordination intensify, new configurations of cooperation emerge within the South Atlantic. These initiatives suggest that rising powers are contributing towards making the South Atlantic – long dominated by North–South ties – a space where South–South cooperation and norms predominate.     

China–Africa Exports: Governance Through Mobility and Sojourning

ABSTRACT

A centre for Asian and intercontinental immigration and export-oriented production, Guangzhou city is at the forefront of China’s global interactions. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this article examines informal governance mechanisms that co-ordinate the circulation of goods and capital between China and Africa. The question addressed is: What roles do mobility and sojourning play in governing trade relations? The analysis is informed by research from three fields: economics scholarship on the trade–migration nexus, ethnographic studies of informal trans-border trade, and historical accounts of long-distance trade in pre-colonial and colonial eras. These traditions point to different ways in which the mobility of people and goods are interlinked. In the case of China–Africa interactions, the flow of goods has increased in tandem with the number of visits by African itinerant traders. The empirical discussion demonstrates that the emergence of intercontinental movements of goods and people between China and Africa was predicated on the brokering role played by African sojourners in Guangzhou. Of particular importance was informal hospitality and logistics infrastructure set up by Africans in the late 1990s, which subsequently evolved and adapted. This infrastructure has facilitated the mobility of people and goods and increased the pace at which trading capital circulates.     

Africa–India nuclear cooperation: Pragmatism,principle, post-colonialism and the Pelindaba Treaty

The United States–India nuclear agreement, announced in 2005, was a first step in the process to normalise India's international nuclear relations despite the fact that India is not a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Africa is largely seen as a uranium supplier rather than nuclear power producer in the world nuclear order. The position that African states take towards Africa–India nuclear cooperation, uranium supply to India in particular, is informed by two seemingly contrasting factors, namely economic and political pragmatism on the one hand, and non-proliferation imperatives and norms on the other. The African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty, also referred to as the Pelindaba Treaty, prohibits uranium and nuclear-related exports to states without comprehensive safeguards of their nuclear facilities, but the case of India is still open for interpretation. Africa and India's shared post-colonial consciousness, manifesting in their historical ties, membership of the Non-Aligned Movement and South–South cooperation, is often regarded as another factor facilitating Africa–India nuclear relations. A more critical view points to the different notions of post-coloniality in Africa and India, resulting in different approaches to nuclear non-proliferation that constrain their nuclear relations.     

The undoing of a unique relationship? Peace and security in the EU–South Africa Strategic Partnership

ABSTRACT

When the European Union (EU) and South Africa acceded to a strategic partnership, they expanded into new areas of partnership. One of these areas was peace and security, which is the focus of this article. The article argues that, although there appears to be a shared understanding of what security means, the strategic partnership has not been utilised significantly to further this understanding in practice. This is largely due to the EU's preferences for a continental, multilateral approach over the bilateralism of a strategic partnership. At the same time, South Africa sees its strategic partnership with the EU as being outside of its broader commitment to regional security. As a result the peace and security element of the strategic partnership has not been leveraged effectively despite several entry points for action. The article thus concludes that both the EU and South Africa need to re-think the current arrangement.     

Brazil and South Africa: the ‘odd couple’ of the South Atlantic?

Exploring the complexity of South Africa's and Brazil's ‘like-mindedness’ at the regional, multilateral, and bilateral levels, this article argues that shared middle power roles traceable to the pre-Cold War era and beyond set the scene for a great deal of political complementarity and cooperation at the multilateral level where Brazil and South Africa's shared identities drive an interest in reforming global governance processes. This complementarity does not, however, always spill over to the bilateral level, where trans-societal linkages are still relatively limited compared with state-to-state interactions.     

The EU–South Africa Strategic Partnership and global environmental governance: Towards effective multilateralism after Copenhagen?

ABSTRACT

This paper uses an analytical framework drawn from organisational studies to unpack and evaluate climate change relations under the EU–South Africa Strategic Partnership. The article finds that, while the EU and South Africa share a common purpose and high-level climate goals, many of the formal organisational structures set up under the partnership to tackle climate change and the environment are weak and have fallen into disuse. At the same time several factors outside of the strategic partnership, such as South Africa's hosting of the Durban climate change meeting, have played a significant role in promoting climate cooperation between the two partners. Therefore, while the strategic partnership creates an additional opportunity for climate cooperation, it is by no means the only or even the most important instrument in the EU's foreign policy tool box for negotiation and dialogue.     

South Africa and Eastern Europe: The challenge of multi‐ethnic societies in transition to democracy

This article explores similarities between the South African transition and the advent of liberal‐democratic government in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Challenges these societies have in common are the accommodation of ethnic and racial diversity and whether democracy can protect minorities. The article surveys the process of constitution‐making among the states of Eastern Europe, examining their efforts to reconcile sectional ethnic/cultural rights and universal human rights. These provisions are compared with the mechanisms employed in South Africa's interim constitution with this purpose. In conclusion, it is argued that successful multiethnic democracies develop where some of a number of identifiable characteristics are present.     

Can International Boycotts Transform Political Systems? The Cases of Cuba and South Africa

The economic embargo against Cuba has been widely promoted as a way to hasten the end of the Castro regime. Historically, however, the connection between embargoes and regime change is mediated by a complex of political, social, and economic conditions. Labormarket bottlenecks and domestic elite opposition, decisive factors in the South African case, are absent from that of Cuba. This study uses the factors derived from an analysis of South Africa to compare the Cuban case and concludes that the embargo against Cuba cannot have its intended results.     

Of demons and angels: The “international” gaze on electoral democracy in Africa

This article reflects on the role of international election observers in African elections, following the so-called wave of democratisation at the end of the Cold War. When analysed against the role of the “international” as a geopolitical entity and the construction of the political as an epistemic heritage of the West, international observation comes across as a western gaze over the gale of democratisation sweeping through Africa. This observation is not motivated by meeting the expectations and aspirations of generations of Africans who have been waiting for and working towards freedom, but by the convergence of elite interests locally and abroad. The article therefore suggests that international observation of Africa in a neo-colonised post-colonial environment raises suspicions of imperialist designs to impose on Africa the manner in which it must organise the political arena, and the kind of democracy that it should pursue.     

Exporting corporate social responsibility into Africa? The experiences of South African companies in Swaziland

The economic expansion of South African corporates across the continent is an evolving and contested process. This paper seeks to inform knowledge on the experiences of South African companies expanding into Africa by looking at the social investment approach of five large companies within South Africa and in their Swaziland operations. While social responsibility programmes are proving to be useful for the private sector, the experiences of these companies highlight the need for more studies to find evidence on the developmental role of major private sector players like South Africa in the region and the impact of corporate social investment and corporate social responsibility in Africa.     

South Africa’s foreign policy aspirations and the National Development Plan (NDP 2030): the role of soft power

Chapter 7 of the NDP 2030 articulates a foreign policy vision for South Africa over two decades. While the NDP acknowledges the place of ‘soft power’ in realising this vision, it remains doubtful whether South Africa will indeed take advantage of the enormous gains offered by soft power as a foreign policy lever. This paper examines the role of soft power in achieving the foreign policy mandates prescribed in the Plan. It argues that, like other regional powers such as China, South Africa needs to pay more attention to its soft power attributes if it is to fast-track the successful implementation of its foreign policy ambitions for 2030. We conclude that sustaining South Africa’s rising position and influence in the international system and in Africa, will largely depend on its ability to consciously adjust its foreign policy trajectories – in the long term – in tandem with its soft power resources and competences.     

The Management of Democratic Elections in Africa (MDEA) programme at the university of South Africa: Is this the right path towards African solutions?

There have been a number of initiatives in Africa to rid the Continent of political instability, conflict, poverty and disease. Many have argued that aid from the West has helped Africa in many ways—from stopping wars, to food relief and rescuing the African environment. Yet others have slated Western involvement which they contend, frequently leaves Africans dependant rather than capable of solving their own problems. In line with the pan-Africanist and the African Union (AU) ideals, there is now a realisation by Africans that there is a need to find African solutions to African challenges and problems. This review article explores the University of South Africa’s (Unisa’s) Management of Democratic Elections in Africa (MDEA) programme, by looking at its objectives and the reason why it must be labelled a Programme, its mandate, which is in line with the brief of the AU and pan-Africanist ideals. The article focuses on how Unisa’s programme responds to the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG); and how it has attempted to facilitate knowledge for peace in Africa, through empowering electoral officials from various African states. The article concludes by looking at the successes and limitations of the Programme over a five-year period, from its inception in 2011.