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Abstract
This paper considers the extent to which South Africa utilises positive economic statecraft to promote human rights in the region – that is, the degree to which it mobilises its economic engagement to affect a desirable political outcome in its foreign engagements in Southern Africa. The country's reaction to crises in Zimbabwe and Swaziland over the past 20 years is a strong indicator of the limits of South Africa's statecraft in this regard. These engagements highlight the inevitable clash between the country's principled preference for ‘non-interference’ in the affairs of sovereign states and its constitutional mandate to respect and promote human rights. Despite eschewing the role of ‘regional hegemon’, there is an expectation that South Africa will play an integral role in securing regional stability. Yet there is little evidence to suggest that the country chooses to approach resolving regional challenges with a co-ordinated political and economic approach. This paper argues that, to be more effective in spreading a progressive regional agenda that encourages democracy, governance and human rights, South Africa needs to incorporate a stronger element of positive economic statecraft in its foreign policy implementation.
Notes on contributor
Aditi Lalbahadur is the Programme Manager of the Foreign Policy Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs.
Notes
1 Mandela N, ‘Nobel Lecture’, Acceptance and Nobel Lecture, The Nobel Peace Prize 1993, http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1993/mandela-lecture_en.html (accessed 31 January 2014).
2 Ibid.
3 For a more comprehensive account of human rights violations in Zimababwe and Swaziland, please refer to the Human Rights Watch World Report 2014, http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters
4 DIRCO (Department of International Relations and Co-operation), ‘Building a better world: The diplomacy of ubuntu’, http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=149749 (accessed 16 November 2013).
5 Mandela N, ‘South Africa's future foreign policy’, Foreign Affairs, 72.5, 1993, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/49408/nelson-mandela/south-africas-future-foreign-policy (accessed 16 November 2013).
6 Ibid.
7 DIRCO, ‘Building a better world: The diplomacy of ubuntu’, http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=149749 (accessed 16 November 2013).
8 Human security is the paradigm through which human development and socio-economic challenges are prioritised over traditional state security.
9 See Article 4(h) African Union Constitutive Act; p. 5, http://www.peaceau.org/uploads/au-act-en.pdf (accessed 15 May 2014).
10 See for instance, the Speech by Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane on the NDP Chapter Seven Tuesday, 25 November 2014, DIRCO Conference Centre, http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/speeches/2014/mash1125.html (accessed 25 June 2015).
11 Mastanduno M, ‘Economic statecraft’, in Smith S, A Hadfield & T Dunne (eds), Foreign Policy: Theories, Actors, Cases. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 172.
12 Baldwin D A, Economic Statecraft. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.
13 Mastanduno M, ‘Economic statecraft’, in Smith S, A Hadfield & T Dunne (eds), Foreign Policy: Theories, Actors, Cases. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 172.
14 Blackwill RD & JM Harris, ‘The lost art of economic statecraft’, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2016, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2016-02-16/lost-art-economic-statecraft?cid=nlc-fatoday-20160226&sp_mid=50791614&sp_rid=bWJyaWRnbWFuQGlhZnJpY2EuY29tS0&spMailingID=50791614&spUserID=MTY4NjA2Mjk2MDU2S0&spJobID=863297564&spReportId=ODYzMjk3NTY0S0 (accessed 27 February 2016).
15 Rogowsky R ‘The revival of economic statecraft’, Political Sciences and Public Affairs, 2.1, 2014.
16 Qobo M, ‘Refocusing South Africa's economic diplomacy: The “African Agenda” and emerging powers', South African Journal of International Affairs, 17.1, 2010, p. 17, http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rsaj20/17/1#.U3RBY3ZpfQs (accessed 11 February 2014).
17 The country's international economic strategy is widely mentioned in government and ruling party policy manifestos. South Africa's economic diplomacy is comprehensively laid out in the ‘South African Trade Policy and Strategy Framework’, reflected in the 2011 South African Foreign Policy White Paper, ANC discussion documents and even raised in the National Development Plan that was presented to Parliament in August 2012.
18 DIRCO, ‘Building a better world: The diplomacy of ubuntu’, http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=149749 (accessed 16 November 2013).
19 Nkoana-Mashabane, ‘SA's not looting the continent, we’re cultivating peace and trade’, Mail & Guardian, 15 November 2013, http://mg.co.za/article/2013-11-15-00-sas-not-looting-the-continent-were-cultivating-peace-and-trade (accessed 15 November 2013).
20 ANC (African National Congress), ‘International relations policy discussion document’, March 2012, http://www.anc.org.za/docs/discus/2012/internationalb.pdf (accessed 20 March 2013).
21 Qobo M, ‘Refocusing South Africa's economic diplomacy: The “African Agenda” and emerging powers', South African Journal of International Affairs, 17.1, 2010, p. 17.
22 Zondi S, ‘South Africa in southern Africa: A perspective’, http://www.fes-europe.eu/attachments/369_Siphamandla%20Zondi,%20South%20Africa%20in%20Southern%20Africa,%20FES%20Mozambique,%202012.pdf (accessed 16 December 2013).
23 Ibid.
24 Hughes T, ‘Working for development in Southern Africa: Bridging the gap between government and business'. SAIIA Occasional Paper, 104. Johannesburg: South African Institute of International Affairs, December 2011, p. 9.
25 Personal interview, Mungai Lenniye, World Bank Country Manager, Harare, Zimbabwe, 5 September 2013.
26 The Economist, ‘Zimbabwe: From breadbasket to basketcase’, The Economist, 27 June 2002, http://www.economist.com/node/1201137 (accessed 28 January 2014).
27 Personal interview, DIRCO official, Pretoria, 14 October 2014.
28 Personal Interviews, Harare, Zimbabwe, 1–5 September 2013.
29 SADC Election Observation Mission to the Republic of Zimbabwe, ‘Preliminary Statement by Hon. Bernard Kamillius Membe, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Republic of Tanzania and Head of the SADC Election Observation Mission to the Harmonised Elections of the Republic of Zimbabwe Held on 31 July 2013’, 2 August 2013, http://www.sadc.int/files/4313/7545/6616/FINAL_Preliminary_Statement_of_the_SADC_Election_Observer_Mission_to_the_July_31_2013_Zimbabwe_Harmonised_Elections_as_at1148_on__August_02_2013.pdf (accessed 16 December 2013).
30 In November 2013 former President Mbeki revealed that South Africa had been approached by the UK in the ‘early 2000s' to participate in a plan to overthrow President Mugabe from office. Smith D, ‘Mbeki: Blair plotted military intervention to remove Mugabe’, Mail & Guardian, 28 November 2013, http://mg.co.za/article/2013-11-28-mbeki-blair-plotted-military-intervention-in-zim (accessed 28 November 2013).
31 It is important to note that this approach changed over time, and became more muted than it was in the early 2000s. The change was informed largely by the fact that the European Union in particular realised that it was better positioned to let the region lead. While it kept sanctions on individuals, it was less vocal than it had been earlier – a tactic that it considered counterproductive.
32 In 2010 it was estimated that 1.5 million Zimbabweans had been absorbed into South Africa. Vickers B, ‘Towards a new aid paradigm South Africa as African development partner’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 25.4, 2012, p. 548.
33 Games D, The Zimbabwe Economy: How Has It Survived and How Will It Recover? SAIIA Report, 30. Johannesburg: South African Institute of International Affairs, 2002.
34 Staff and agencies, ‘Hands off Zimbabwe, Mugabe tells Blair’, The Guardian, 2 September 2002, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2002/sep/02/greenpolitics.Zimbabwenews (accessed 31 January 2014).
35 Personal interview, DIRCO official, Pretoria, 14 October 2014.
36 Personal interview, Jeremy Youmans, Paramount Textiles and Commercial Farmers Union, Harare, Zimbabwe, 2–3 September 2013.
37 Department of Trade and Industry, ‘Economic co-operation with Zimbabwe will contribute significantly to Africa's growth – Deputy Minister Thabethe’. Pretoria: Department of Trade and Industry, https://www.thedti.gov.za/editmedia.jsp?id=2867 (accessed 3 January 2014).
38 Personal interview, DIRCO official, Pretoria, 14 October 2014.
39 Hawkins T, ‘Zimplats agrees “localisation” stake sale’, Financial Times, 11 January 2013, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2256fdb0-5be4-11e2-bef7-00144feab49a.html#axzz2sYQmCSLf (accessed 31 January 2014).
40 Personal interview, DIRCO official, Pretoria, 14 October 2014.
41 Human Rights Watch, Diamonds in the Rough: Human Rights Abuses in the Marange Diamond Fields of Zimbabwe, HRW 2009, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2009/06/26/diamonds-rough-0 (accessed 30 October 2013).
42 For more information on this, please refer to Masiya T & A Benkenstein, ‘Zimbabwe's Marange diamonds and the need for reform of the Kimberley Process’. SAIIA Policy Briefing, 43, February 2012, http://www.saiia.org.za/policy-briefings/zimbabwes-marange-diamonds-and-the-need-for-reform-of-the-kimberley-process
43 Allison S, ‘The Zimbabwe election fiasco: Phantom South African loans and no date in sight’, Daily Maverick, 19 April 2013, http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-04-19-the-zimbabwe-election-fiasco-phantom-south-african-loans-and-no-date-in-sight/#.Uz6xdKivW8A (accessed 4 April 2014).
44 Alden C, ‘South Africa's quiet diplomacy and the crisis in Zimbabwe’, Cadernos de Estudos Africanos, 2, 2002, published online 2 June 2014; doi: 10.4000/cea.1341, http://cea.revues.org/1341 (accessed 28 April 2016).
45 Personal interview, DIRCO official, Pretoria, 14 October 2014, Personal interview, Mungai Lenniye, World Bank Country Manager, Harare, Zimbabwe, 5 September 2013.
46 Dlamini LS, ‘Swaziland: Democracy and political participation: A review by AfriMAP and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa’. Discussion Paper. Johannesburg: Open Society Foundations, March 2013, http://www.afrimap.org/english/images/report/AfriMAP%20SWZ%20Democracy%20%20PP%20main%20text%20Web%20FINAL.pdf (accessed 16 December 2013).
47 https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/25/dispatches-swazilands-dismal-human-rights-record-just-got-worse (accessed 29 May 2016).
48 Between 2009 and 2012, 40 cabinet-approved bills remained unprocessed; Dlamini D, ‘Delayed bills saga’, Times of Swaziland, 25 June 2012, http://www.times.co.sz/News/76904.html (accessed 6 January 2014).
49 Gwebu T, ‘King the only winner in Swaziland’, Independent Online, 20 September 2013, http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/king-the-only-winner-in-swaziland-1.1580425#.Us69QNISiAg (accessed 16 December 2013).
50 Personal interview, Bongani Masuku, International Relations Secretary, COSATU, Johannesburg, 18 October 2013.
51 Vines A, C Vandome, A Vines & M Weimer, Southern Africa's Forgotten Crisis, Programme Report. London: Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs), September 2013, p. 5.
52 Personal interview, DIRCO official, Pretoria, 14 October 2014.
53 Pillay V, ‘All the president's women’, Mail & Guardian, 4 January 2010, http://mg.co.za/article/2010-01-04-all-the-presidents-women (accessed 16 December 2013).
54 Motsamai D, ‘South Africa's Swaziland bailout: A political anti-climax?’, Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, http://www.issafrica.org/iss-today/south-africas-swaziland-bailout-a-political-anti-climax (accessed 16 December 2013).
55 ZAR is the currency code for South African rand.
56 Prinsloo L, ‘R2.4bn Swaziland loan conditional on reforms – Gordhan’, Polity.org, 3 August 2011, http://www.polity.org.za/article/r24bn-swaziland-loan-conditional-on-reforms-gordhan-2011-08-03 (accessed 6 January 2014).
57 Ibid.
58 Vickers B, ‘Towards a new aid paradigm South Africa as African development partner’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 25.4, 2012, p. 548.
59 Personal interviews, Sambulo Mathebulo, Researcher, Southern African Liaison Office, Johannesburg, 19 September 2013.
60 Nkambule M, ‘Crossing the SACU bridge’, The Times of Swaziland, 21 December 2013, http://www.times.co.sz/news/94444-crossing-the-sacu-bridge.html (accessed 6 January 2014).
61 Vickers B, ‘Towards a new aid paradigm South Africa as African development partner’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 25.4, 2012, p. 548.
62 http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/africa-in-focus/posts/2014/05/23-agoa-swaziland-madagascar-sy (accessed 19 May 2016).
63 http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/trade/2015/03/09/sa-not-getting-a-fair-share-of-regional-customs-revenue (accessed 19 May 2016).