by Richard Chidowore (This is a first in a four-part series on post-apartheid Southern Africa)
South Africa will be formally accepted as the eleventh member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) at the annual summit in Gaborone, Botswana, at the end of this
month.
High on the agenda will be the role the new post-apartheid South Africa is to play within the community.
The SADC executive secretary, Kaire Mbuende, says the emergence of a newly democratic South Africa allows the organization to properly explore regional economic integration, which depends on
political and military stability.
“Economic development cannot take place in an insecure environment, and now is the time to consolidate democracy and peace in southern Africa,” says Mbuende.
As the government of national unity led by the African National Congress (AN C) seeks to implement a new military policy in South Africa, invitations are coming in from its neighbours, as
well as the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations (UN), for it to become involved in collective security mechanism.
The SADC Council of Ministers, which meets in Gaborone on 26 August, ahead of the summit, is expected to adopt a blueprint for a new sector on defence and security. If adopted, the sector will
form a basis of formal agreements which would set the organization on the road to integrated security, military and foreign policies.
It has been suggested that either South Africa, Zimbabwe or Tanzania may be given the new sector to run. A SADC official said the resolutions should be approved with “little difficulty” as ministers on the council helped to draft them.
The approval will lead to the establishment of an autonomous and permanent Commission of Human Rights to promote, monitor and enforce national, regional and international human rights
treaties.
This follows a recent SADC foreign and defence ministers’ workshop on democracy, peace and security in the Namibian capital, Windhoek, which expanded SADCs role into a regional peace and
human rights monitor. The recommendations aim to reduce regional and national tensions — together with national military expenditures — by co-operating and co-ordinating policies in both
law enforcement and military action.
At that meeting a working group on conflict resolution recommended that, in the event of a “breakdown” of law and order “the SADC may decide, on the basis of sufficient consensus … to
intervene in an internal crisis of a member country”. It has been recommended that the eight-member Frontline States (FLS) be an appendage of SA DC.
Other southern African countries (Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi) are expected to join the group.
Zimbabwean Foreign Minister, Nathan Shamuyarira, says the linkage to SADC is in line with SA DC’s treaty which commits member countries to co-operation in international,
diplomatic, security and political affairs.
“The whole idea is to change the Frontline State’s orientation. The organization should retain its informality ty, flexibility and effectiveness although it will become an integral part of SADC,” said Shamuyarira. The most immediate issue is Lesotho, where the elected government of Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle was ousted by King Letsie III, with backing from soldiers and police, on 17 August in what has been described as a “royal coup”?
The Basutho Congress Party (BCP) government came to power in a landslide election victory in March last year when Lesotho returned to democracy after years of military rule.
The coup follows a series of crises since January when rival army factions clashed across the capital Maseru over pay disputes which prompted the BCPgovernment to twice request South African
military intervention.
“If any action is taken, even if it is taken by one country, it will be as a result of a unanimous decision of the Frontline States,” said South African President Nelson Mandela.
It is uncertain whether the FLS will now intervene militarily as they have previously opted for a negotiated solution.
The instability in Lesotho has the potential to spread beyond the mountainous country, increasing further the FLS concern over the crises.
“We would set a very dangerous precedent if, as a region where democracy is the order of the day, we allowed its reversal by forces which are bent on lawlessness and disorder,” said Zimbabwean
President and FLS Chairman, Robert Mugabe, at the group’s summit in Cape Town in June.
Foreign and defence ministers in the region have suggested that there be co-ordination of policies and exchange of information on military intelligence and joint training.
They would like to see a situation whereby armed forces are “accountable for their actions and conduct, and remain under democratically elected governments.” They see regional security being
strengthened through cooperation between regional police and International Police Organization (Interpol) in arresting and extraditing
criminals.
South Africa is likely to be a “senior policeman” in other, more general, regional security problems, such as arms-smuggling, drug-trafficking, poaching, vehicle theft and money laundering.
What is likely to emerge from the SADC summit in Gaborone is far greater cooperation in policing borders and migration rather than any substantial moves to a security union.
Although both the United Nations (UN) and the OAU have been putting considerable pressure for Pretoria to become involved in the peacekeeping missions in Rwanda, Mandela has so far limited
aid to the occasional mercy flights, providing food, one field hospital and 50 personnel carriers.
This is understandable, considering the financial constraints that the country faces. Mandela’s government of national unity’s immediate task is includes integrating the country’s various armies before it can involve itself in foreign operations.
South African Defence Minister, Joe Modise, is currently facing criticism in parliament that his US$2.9 billion defence budget allocation is robbing the Reconstruction and Development Programme of resources, and could find it difficult to engage the army in foreign assignments. The RDP is intended to clear apartheid-created backlogs in socio-economic requirements of the majority of South Africans.
Instead, South African officials have been offering the country’s skills in broke ring agreements between conflicting parties. Foreign Minister, Alfred Nzo, declared South Africa’s willingness
to assist in finding a peaceful solution to the problems in Angola, Mozambique and Rwanda.
Mandela’s meeting in July with Presidents Jose Eduwardo dos Santos of Angola, Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, as well as his invitation to Unita leader
Jonas Savimbi for direct talks in Pretoria, demonstrate the courage and commitment to promoting peace and security in the region.
The immediate achievement of that meeting was the revival of a joint security commission between Angola and Zaire) after a lapse of several years. The joint commission will, among other things) discuss Mobutu’s aid to Unita.
The crucial outstanding issue between the Angolan government and Unita remains around the control of Huambo province, where Unita draws most of its support.
Mandela opted to join other regional leaders in Maputo for The Second Presidential Forum On The Management of Science and Technology For Development in Africa instead of going to UK,
where he dispatched Vice-President Thabo Mbeki and Nzo to attend the Commonwealth ceremony marking South Africa’s return to the club.
The Maputo meeting rapidly turned into a regional summit with Presidents Mandela, Chissano, Mugabe, Mobutu and Botswana’s Sir Ketumile Masire. Mozambique could pose a threat to
regional security if war returns or election results are seriously disputed.
Mandela’s visit to Maputo is viewed as a positive signal to the region and Africa as a whole) and as illustrating the competing pressure on the new government’s emerging foreign policy. Concern about regional stability is being balanced with a new emphasis on economic diplomacy.
The emphasis has switched to Africa, unlike successive apartheid governments which cemented ties to Europe and the United States in order to enlist support for the preservation of their
discriminatory system. (SARDC)
