The end of the cold war resulted in much optimism in Africa that political and economic problems would be minimised. In line with this optimism a number of countries undertook political and economic reforms. These developments are the reason why I chose the topic of democratic consolidation. There has been a growing interest in the democratisation prospects of these 'fragile states'. The question is, would they succeed in establishing necessary institutions to support democratic norms? In the literature there are diverse opinions, some point to political elites as the main stumbling block to democratic consolidation. They argue that there are no incentives to pursue a democratic path. Modernisation theory has placed more emphasis on economic development as a prerequisite to political stability. As a result some people argue that poor countries have limited chances to consolidate their democracy. This paper focuses upon the prospects of democratic consolidation in South Africa. The study has two main themes that are closely interlinked. The relationship between economic development and political development will be examined as will the positioning and ability of ruling elite to facilitate or impede democratic consolidation. What is argued is that institutions are in place to guarantee democratic consolidation. What is required now is a robust civil and political society to safeguard this democracy. This dissertation concludes by arguing that citizens are the key to democratic consolidation, they can guard their won freedom if they feel that it is threatened. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1999.

South Africa‟s liberal democratic constitution allows for political competition for office, enhanced by the media‟s involvement or role, as both stakeholder and facilitator for debate between the public and political parties. The role of the media becomes a sensitive one as it entails perspectives on the political process and, as a consequence, certain perceptions of the political class, structures and electoral process will emerge. In previous elections the media has been cited for abdicating its objective stance in the narrative on political competition in view of candidate lists, party coalitions and allocation of value through cadre deployment, a term used for political appointments within party structures to positions of leadership in public office. Accordingly, it provokes intense debates in which the rationality of liberal-objective-observer to democratic process is criticized by thinking which argues that such rationality remains trapped by a devotion to „liberalist rituals‟, rituals detached from embedded meanings specific to South Africa‟s socio-political dynamics.

The aim of this study was to establish whether the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) performed according to its mandate in ensuring a fair broadcast coverage of all political parties that participated in the 2014 national general election. The study was undertaken as a result of the complaints by political parties who accused the SABC of bias during the election. The study focused on two SABC radio stations, namely SAFM and UKHOZI FM. In executing the research, particular attention was paid to the coverage of political party manifestos, town hall election debates and radio interviews. The study was written utilising the theoretical paradigm of Social Responsibility Theory, as this is largely deemed the most ethical guide in testing South African journalism. The research was conducted in accordance with the Independent Complaints Authority of South Africa (ICASA) regulations that govern broadcast media during elections. The second part of the analysis deconstructed the SABC’s media coverage of the 2014 election through Media Monitoring Africa – a non-profit organisation that monitors and reports on media coverage of elections, whilst simultaneously taking ICASA stipulated guidelines into account. The MMA and ICASA equipped the study with reports which were compiled after an intense monitoring of SABC’s coverage of the 2014 election. Through the analysis of political parties’ accessibility to the election broadcast programmes on SABC platforms, the study concluded that although there were errors, the SABC treated all parties fairly during the 2014 general elections. The study also found that poor corporate governance at the SABC did not impact directly on the public broadcaster’s ability to deliver fair election broadcasting. By conforming to the social responsibility role that calls for high professional conduct, fairness and objectivity as expected in the public broadcaster, this study found that the SABC was committed to a fair coverage of the 2014 election.

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.

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.

This study is a content analysis of political writings of Aggrey Klaaste (1988-2002). Six theoretical themes suggest that Klaaste’s Nation Building philosophy can help deal with racial and social divisions in the country. These historical divisions are the source of racial tensions, lack of inter-racial socialisations and cause separate living. Lack of social cohesion makes it impossible for post apartheid South Africa to achieve much-needed single national identity. The process of nation building proposed by Klaaste starts with breaking down what he refers to as ‘the corrugated iron curtain’. Social curtaining is deliberate actions by people of different racial groups, religious formations and social classes to build psychological, physical, institutional, political, economic and religious boundaries around themselves to keep others outside their living spaces. These conscious barriers result in unstable democracy as the majority (black population) get frustrated with shack dwellings - as symbols of poverty - while the white population and the middle class blacks move to white suburbs. Moving to upmarket suburbs does not necessarily make race groups to cohere and share a common national identity. Instead informal settlements breed social ills such as poverty, crime and drug substances abuse. This status quo can cause serious political instability which will affect everyone – black and white. Klaaste argues that for collective survival all race groups need to enter into politics of action. For this he proposes specific processes and actions through Nation Building. It is argued that political solutions have failed to unite people and leaders from all sectors of society should emerge. Blacks cannot moan and hate forever. Whites will be affected and must actively support the rebuilding process. This treatise proposes nation building as a process to help everyone to find uniting issues free of political ideologies to create new brotherhood and Ubuntu.

The focal point of this treatise is the evaluation of the paradigm shift that has taken place in our South African criminal justice system post 1994. This shift is seen as a move away from a retribution approach to a more victim-centred approach. One needs to remember that the previous regime had unfair and unjust laws: to do away with such laws an interim constitution1 was enacted in Parliament in 1993 and became operational on 27 April 1994. It was the fundamental law of South Africa. This was later repealed by the final Constitution 2 on 4 April 1997. In its preamble it states categorically that it seeks to establish a “society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights” and “(to) lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law”. One of the priorities of democratic government in 1996 was the National Crime Prevention Strategy3 (hereafter referred to as the NCPS). It was designed to reduce the high level of crime in our country and has four pillars: the criminal justice process; reducing crime through environmental design; public values and education and trans-national crime. Pillar one is seen as a move away from retribution as punishment towards a system of restorative justice 4. Furthermore the South African government is a signatory to various international laws, treaties and declarations that uphold victims’ rights. One example would be the United Nations Declaration on the Basic Principle of Justice for Victims of Crime and abuse of Power 1985 - in fact the Victims’ Charter is compliant with this declaration. Yet one cannot negate the fact that in the last two decades the status of victims has altered significantly: there has been some development in the transformation of the criminal justice system. Since 1994 the focus gradually shifted from an adversarial and retributive criminal justice to that of restorative justice. This shift is vindicated by following examples: the adoption of the NCPS; the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 5 (hereafter referred to as the TRC); the adoption of the Service Charter for Victims of Crime 6(hereafter referred to as the Victims’ Charter); the enactment of the Child Justice Act7; and case laws which applied restorative justice principles such as S v Maluleke and S v Saayman. Therefore this treatise will evaluate the application of a restorative system by looking at the definition of restorative justice; government commitments to the system; the enactment of Acts and policies that support the system. This will be done in relation to the victims.

This thesis argues that 1994 did not mark a point of absolute discontinuity in the history of South Africa. More specifically, it asserts that 1994 did not signal the end of segregationism; instead of democracy leading to national integration, the Bantustans are still governed and managed differently from the rest of the country. Consequently, it is no surprise that they remain mired in pervasive, debilitating poverty fifteen years after 1994. In insisting that contemporary South Africa is old (rather than new), the thesis seeks to make a contribution to political struggles that aim to bring to an end the segregationist past-in-the-present. The thesis is arranged in seven chapters. The first chapter considers the crisis that has engulfed South Africa historiography since 1994. It traces the roots of the crisis back to some of the fundamentals of the discipline of history, such as empiricism, neutrality and historicism. It suggests that the way to end the crisis, to re-assert the relevance of history, is for historians to re-invoke the practice of producing histories of the present, in an interested, deliberate manner. Chapter 2 narrows down the focus of the thesis to (past and present) property. It suggests that instead of understanding the constitutional protection of property rights and installation of a restitution process as the product of a compromise between adversarial negotiators, these outcomes are more correctly understood as emanating from consensus. The third chapter outlines the implementation of the restitution programme from 1994 to 2008. The productive value of restitution over this period is found not in what it has delivered to the claimants (supposedly the beneficiaries of the programme), but rather in its discursive effects related to citizenship in the new South Africa. Chapter 4 considers the exclusion of dispossession that was implemented in the Bantustans from the restitution programme. It argues that this decision was not an oversight on the part of the post-1994 government. Instead it was consistent with all other key policy decisions taken in the recent period. The Bantustans have been treated differently from the rest of South Africa; they have been deliberately under-developed, fabricated as welfare zones, and subjected to arbitrary customary rule. Whereas Chapters 2 to 4 look at the production of historical truth on the side of domination, Chapter 6 and 7 consider production on the side of resistance. Specifically, they describe and analyse the attempts of an NGO to establish the truths of betterment as dispossession, and post-1994 prejudice against the victims of betterment dispossession. They serve as case studies of third party-led processes that seek to produce truth-effects from within a prevailing truth regime. The final chapter attempts to bring many of the threads that weave through the thesis together, by means of a critical consideration of human rights discourse. The chapter calls on intellectuals to establish truths in relation to the history of ongoing human wrongs in South Africa (as opposed to the rainbow narrative of human rights) Finally, the thesis includes a postscript, comprising technical summaries of each of the chapters.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in 25% fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management( in the field of Public and Development Management) / Political parties are prominent in the development of democracy in South Africa. Therefore, it is critical to expand knowledge about the governance of the major parties in the country in order to reflect on the future of democracy. The framework based on key functions - membership recruitment, policy formulation and organisational complexity performed by political parties facilitate an incisive assessment of adherence to governance principles - participation, accountability and transparency. Various sources, which include constitutions, interviews and focus group discussions of political parties, were central in the assessment of the governance principles of parties. The study revealed that the visions, missions, regularity of meetings, quorums requirements for meetings, diverse representation and structures are instructive in assessing and understanding the prevalence of governance principles within the operations of political parties. These areas are revealed in the study and they also provide insights in a future perspective of South African democracy. / GR2018

Despite several strides made, governance has remained a foundational issue to be addressed in the struggle for human rights and inclusive development in Africa. Almost two decades into existence, it has become imperatively necessary to evaluate the success of this struggle through Africa’s monitoring tool - the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). This work examines the progress attained in the context of Ghana, which has been acclaimed as a leading democracy in Africa and was the first country to be reviewed. Largely through doctrinal research, data was obtained from online sources and visits to key institutions in Ghana including its National APRM (NAPRM) Secretariat. The findings of this work reveal a higher success level in compliance with legal and policy adjustments, although sometimes instituted at a very slow pace. Yet attaining the anticipated human rights impact has remained a challenge. The lack of Ghana’s political will and poor funding as well as poor responsiveness from the APRM international Secretariat have highly impeded the work of Ghana’s NAPRM; including its continuous publication of Program of Action (POA) reports. It has thus mainly resorted to domestic District Governance Assessments (DGAs) which have in themselves not also been regular. The absence of political will has also been the primary obstacle to a subsequent review, and only recently has Ghana started plans to undergo a Targeted Review on specific domestic issues. This attitude has for several decades similarly been transposed into the country’s state reporting obligations under other African human rights monitoring systems, hence affecting their ability to directly impact domestic change in comparison to the APRM. The findings of this work demonstrate the need to strengthen state responsiveness to treaty monitoring obligations, as well as the workings of the APRM in collaboration with other African monitoring mechanisms. / Mini Dissertation (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) --University of Pretoria, 2021. / European Union / Global Campus of Human Rights / Royal Norwegian Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa / Centre for Human Rights / LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa) / Unrestricted