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A critical afrocentric analysis of South Africa’s SADC-mandated mediation in Zimbabwe, 2007 – 2014
Thesis (PhD (International Relations))--University of Pretoria, 2022.
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University of Pretoria
2023
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| _version_ | 1867613623198679040 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Zondi, Siphamandla |
| author_browse | Zondi, Siphamandla |
| author_facet | Zondi, Siphamandla |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2022 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
| description | Thesis (PhD (International Relations))--University of Pretoria, 2022. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/89291 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:39:05.410Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/89291 A critical afrocentric analysis of South Africa’s SADC-mandated mediation in Zimbabwe, 2007 – 2014 Zondi, Siphamandla nomvula27@gmail.com Mphahlele, Bongiwe Princess South African foreign policy Afrocentric analysis SADC-mandated mediation International human rights UCTD Thesis (PhD (International Relations))--University of Pretoria, 2022. This study seeks to understand how South Africa has pursued the African agenda through its foreign policy and how it applied it during its mediation in the Zimbabwe crisis between 2007 and 2014. South Africa’s approach was criticised both at home and abroad for being “soft” on the governing Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) led government when it seized land from white farmers and dealt violently against political opposition in the early 2000s. Pretoria’s refusal to denounce the Mugabe government publicly, even when internal activists called for condemnation, provoked criticism from the human rights community that the African National Congress (ANC) government ignored human rights violations in Zimbabwe in blind solidarity with a fellow liberation movement. After assuming the mediator role in Zimbabwe on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), this criticism spread. Pretoria’s approach was then labelled a ‘quiet diplomacy’ to suggest that it was keeping mum about what it needed to openly oppose. Some argued that South Africa chose African solidarity to shield violent and dictatorial African governments from criticism and censure over the need to speak truth to power. Furthermore, studies that have covered South Africa’s foreign policy in Zimbabwe look at it from multiple theoretical perspectives, but none has so far employed an Afrocentric lens. This is despite the fact that a need to understand this, which is called African solidarity in South Africa’s approach. This study responds to this gap in analysis by providing a critical Afrocentric analysis of South Africa’s African agenda and how it shaped South Africa’s approach to the mediation in Zimbabwe. It seeks to understand how the African agenda, as understood by Pretoria, may explain the dynamics of South Africa’s foreign policy posture on Zimbabwe in 2007 and 2014 when it was a SADC mediator. On this basis, the study argues that the South African African agenda is underpinned by ideological frames coming from African ideas like Pan-Africanism, African Unity and African Renaissance that are crucial to fully account for South Africa’s relations with fellow African countries. We argue that the South African approach to Zimbabwe cannot be adequately explained without understanding the core paradigm and principles of the African agenda and how this guided South Africa’s choices concerning the Zimbabwean crisis. Mainstream analysis tends to associate the African agenda with the sustenance of demagogues. The weakness of such analysis is that it focuses on African leaders in which the interest of those leaders defines the good of Africa. Afrocentricity looks beyond just leaders; it focuses on people, culture and identity from a social, economic, political and philosophical term. We also argue that if the African agenda is understood outside Afrocentricity, the focus is on leaders, but if understood within Afrocentricity, the focus is on African people. Consequently, the study found that despite South Africa’s failure to meet international human rights standards by downplaying the ZANU-PF-driven violations on Zimbabweans and failure to uphold democratic processes, Pretoria successfully promoted their African renaissance regional objectives, including regional solidarity, unity, respecting sovereignty of African countries, African- centered conflict resolution in the region and African solutions to African problems. The research is a qualitative analytical study reliant on primary and secondary data in the public domain. National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences Political Sciences PhD (International Relations) Unrestricted 2023-02-08T07:26:53Z 2023-02-08T07:26:53Z 2023-04 2022 Thesis * A2023 https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/89291 10.25403/UPresearchdata.21985091 en © 2022 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | South African foreign policy Afrocentric analysis SADC-mandated mediation International human rights UCTD A critical afrocentric analysis of South Africa’s SADC-mandated mediation in Zimbabwe, 2007 – 2014 |
| title | A critical afrocentric analysis of South Africa’s SADC-mandated mediation in Zimbabwe, 2007 – 2014 |
| title_full | A critical afrocentric analysis of South Africa’s SADC-mandated mediation in Zimbabwe, 2007 – 2014 |
| title_fullStr | A critical afrocentric analysis of South Africa’s SADC-mandated mediation in Zimbabwe, 2007 – 2014 |
| title_full_unstemmed | A critical afrocentric analysis of South Africa’s SADC-mandated mediation in Zimbabwe, 2007 – 2014 |
| title_short | A critical afrocentric analysis of South Africa’s SADC-mandated mediation in Zimbabwe, 2007 – 2014 |
| title_sort | critical afrocentric analysis of south africa s sadc mandated mediation in zimbabwe 2007 2014 |
| topic | South African foreign policy Afrocentric analysis SADC-mandated mediation International human rights UCTD |
| url | https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/89291 |