There is a dearth of position papers on international participation in the South African transition. Political parties and organisations in South Africa instead spend most of their time describing various forms of desirous IC intervention after the transition. This might explain why most articles and academic papers on 'the role of the international community' are suffixed - in the 'new South Africa' or 'post-apartheid South Africa' - few focus on the actual transition and then mostly from a systemic perspective, broadly outlining the constraints imposed by the 'new world order'. Perhaps the first serious attempt to address this gap in the debate over South Africa's future was D. Kempton and L. Mosia's 'The International Community in South Africa's Transition to non-racial Democracy' (1992). Before multiparty negotiations collapsed in June 1992, Kempton and Mosia examined the attitudes toward international intervention of most of the CODESA participants, as well as the major actors that had remained outside CODESA. This paper takes up the issue where Kempton and Mosia left off. It tries to explain transitional politics since the IC introduced an on-the-ground presence after the UN Security Council debates on South Africa in July 1992. It asks why, eight months after multiparty talks were suspended, the IC has been unable to revive multiparty negotiations, has apparently had little or no impact on the violence, and despite events like Boipatong and Bisho, still plays a minor peacekeeping role, confined to observer status. The research describes internal and external components of international intervention, examines the rationale behind the agreed forms of international participation, and assesses the viability of the internationally-supported conflict-resolution and transition-management structures that were formed to facilitate the transition. The evidence uncovered by the research leads the author to the conclusion that more of an international role is necessary, and sooner rather than later, but he concedes that this is not feasible, or likely, under the status quo.

This study is a contribution to the ongoing debate concerning the future of South Africa’s macro-economic policy known as the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy. The study attempts to draw parallels between the GEAR macro-economic policy framework and structural adjustment programmes in the South. By making use of this comparison, the study argues that the outcome of the GEAR will be no different from structural adjustment programmes in that it will fail to reduce poverty and cause government to meet the basic needs of the people. These conclusions are drawn from the fact that the GEAR policy is premised on the faith that the market is capable of redistributing income and wealth, and providing people with their basic needs.

Until the introduction of administration boards in 1972-1973, the responsibility for administering the urban black townships in "white" South Africa was vested with the municipalities as agents of the Department of Bantu Administration and Development. The establishment of administration boards to replace the municipalities' Non-European Affairs Departments reflected the determination of the Department of Bantu Administration and Development to secure tighter direct control over the implementation of policy, particularly that affecting influx control and labour regulation. The decision to end municipal control was made after the report of the Van Rensburg Inter-Departmental Committee of Inquiry into Control Measures, which reported in 1967. The report's concern that influx control was not working as intended, coupled with doubts about the political autonomy of Opposition controlled municipalities, which dated back to the 1950s, were the major reasons for the introduction of administration boards.

With the possible exception of Hofmeyr and Schreiner, there is no Cape statesman whose career raises more tantalising questions than that of John X. Merr1man. Last Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, doyen of Parliamentarians, brilliant orator, versatile administrator, veteran politician, his public life stretched across fifty-five years of south African History. He entered upon it before the grant of Responsible Government, the discovery of diamonds and gold, and the awakening. of Afrikaner Nationalism; he departed from it on the eve of the Statute of Westminster, the establishment of Iscor and the coming to power of Hertzog and Malan. His contemporaries looked upon him as a man of immense knowledge and olympian ability. In the eyes of many his position as leader of the largest and oldest settled community in South Africa, not to mention his role as heir to the Cape tradition, made him the natural choice as first Prime Minister of the Union he had helped to establish. He was not called to office. Barely seventy, in the full maturity of his years, he withdrew trom active political leadership in the country of his adoption. He is hardly remembered today. This thesis seeks to contribute something to an understanding of the man and an assessment of his qualities by a study of his formative years. It attempts both to reconstruct his personality and analyse the nature of his statesmanship - not only by an examination of the role he played in the years under review, but also by an assessment of the part he failed to play. For this purpose both the structure of Cape politics and the ramifications of the various problems that presented themselves have been explored in greater detail than might otherwise have been the case.

M.A. (Political Studies) / The study sets out to establish the importance of perceptions in policy formulation and to illustrate this with reference to South African policy formulators' perceptions of the communist threat against the country. It is commonly accepted by theoreticians that in policy making, the state of the environment does not matter so much as what policy formulators believe it to be. Furthermore, there will always be a discrepancy between images of reality and reality itself. The operation of various mechanisms that influence perception and may, over time, result in inaccurate images, are highlighted in the first part of the study. A second part focuses on early perceptions of the communist threat in the post- Second World War period. This provides the basis for an in-depth discussion of perceptions and measures to counter the perceived threat during Prime Minister Vorster's term of office (1966-78) and part of Botha's premiership (1978-82). Four outstanding and related themes can be identified in the study. The first is the perception of a constantly growing communist threat to both the internal and external security of South Africa. A second theme evolves around policy formulators' growing awareness, and later acceptance, of South Africa's international isolation to counter the perceived threat. A related perception is that Western powers, by refusing to help South Africa, not only make themselves available as handymen of the communists, but form part of a total onslaught against the Republic. South Africa's increased reliance on more aggressive means to ensure its security, is a third theme. This illustrates the interplay between perceptions and decisions. A final theme refers to the initial identification of the threat as directed primarily at whites. Later, no doubt due to the perceived need for a united South African response to the threat, the emphasis shifted to include all population groups as targets of communist subversion...

M.A.

D.Litt. et Phil. / This study focuses on the political theory of Michael Oakeshott in whose work we find a comprehensive and coherent theoretical understanding of the modern state and government. The modern state, according to Oakeshott, possesses a dual character because it entails a synthesis between what he calls an enterprise association understanding of the state and a civil association understanding. Both of these co-exist in the modern appreciation of the state, with the one ameliorating the excesses of the other. Oakeshott believes this duality provides the best possible framework for a theoretical appraisal of the modern state. Based on this framework the unique character of an individual state, such as South Africa, can be assessed in terms of the position of its contingent understanding in relation to these two different views. In his consideration of this hybrid character of the state, Oakeshott notes that the rationalistically inclined enterprise association view currently seems to dominate within the field of politics. Such a dominance, if pushed too far, would undermine the coherence of the modern state, whose stability depends on the continued coexistence of both a civil and an enterprise understanding. In this study, the post-1994 ANC government in South Africa will be appraised in light of Oakeshott’s understanding of the modern state. The question as to the dominance, or not, of an enterprise association view of the state and government within the ANC will be assessed. Consideration will be given to the ANC’s understanding of its role and function as government and of its view of the broader association called the South African state. Here I will assess the role and influence of historical circumstances, and also, those key ideas that give intellectual organisation to ANC politics and inform both the responsibilities that the ANC feels it has to fulfil and the goals that it sets for itself and for the society at large. Finally, the implications of the identified enterprise character of the ANC government will be assessed in terms of its impact on the broader South African state and society.

M.A. (Political Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Ethnic identities in South Africa have had a particularly contrived history, set within the constraints and motivations of population classification by race. A more democratic political environment emerged with the dismantling of apartheid, bringing with it a multitude of issues including the design and character of the country’s political institutions and framework. This thesis will address two principal questions. The first and primary one investigates what lies behind the initiation and development of ethnic bonds. The second concerns the political implications and management of ethnic expressions in a democratic South Africa. An analysis of Zulu ethnic nationalism will be undertaken, because it constituted the most prominent case of assertive communal interests during democratic transitional negotiations. This thesis argues that circumstantial and instrumental factors (based on conditions, and the actions of individuals and organizations respectively), have been predominately responsible for the initiation and formation of ethnic bonds, especially amongst those who identify with a Zulu identity. The “conditions” describe the increasingly segregationist direction in which successive South African government authorities were moving, especially after the 1948 election victory of the National Party and the subsequent introduction of apartheid. Secondly, the “actions” denote the motivations of both Zulu actors and governments in generating and elaborating an ethnic discourse where their desired interests could be more effectively supported and assured. It will also be argued that because of the instrumental and selective use of ethnicity, as well as the narrow interests being served by its popular and community-centred expressions, a developing South African democratic culture should seek to protect ethnic diversity rather than promote ethnic interests. To do so would be to deny the perpetuation of ethnic cleavages and the violence and instability perpetrated in its name in recent years. The “protection” of cultural diversity is consistent with a constitution that seeks non-discrimination among all South African identities. Finally, it is believed that an emphasis on the individual as individual, as well as member of a cultural group, will break from subordinating the individual to an ascribed racial and ethnic identity as in the past, and assist in reconstituting the state as equally reflective of all South Africans.

The final step envisaged by present South African Government policy in respect of the black peoples of South Africa is the granting of political independence to the ten homelands which have been set aside for occupation by the various ethnic groups recognized by the. Government. This step represents the culmination of ideas that have developed regarding the separation of races since early in South Africa's history, and decisions that have been taken to implement them. Particularly since the first attempts to formulate black policy after Union in 1910, there have been protagonists of a segregationist policy, and the idea of some sort of self-government for the various races of South Africa has been evident 1n the country for many years. This idea was given greater stature in the policies of the national government after 1948, and in 1959 full political independence for the various black nations in South Africa became a political goal of the governing party. As this policy has progressed during the present decade, a number of new political areas have come into existence at various levels of the hierarchy of political areas. Intro. p. 1.