The Role Of Political Culture In South Africa’s Post-apartheid Foreign Policy

This study is a critical analysis of South Africa’s foreign policy in the post-apartheid era.Specifically, the study is focusing on the role of political culture in South African foreign policyprinciples during the Mandela and Mbeki administration. Political culture will be defined as theoverall historical attitudes of a collective. As compared to economic factors, political culture inpost-apartheid South African literature is not given much credit as a domestic factor influencingforeign policy making. However, there is a huge semblance between political culture andforeign policy if critical analysis is given due attention. By examining the political culture of theANC this study aims to understand actor’s orientation to certain goals, why certain goals arehighly esteemed than others and how these influence foreign policy. In the case of South Africa,democracy, human rights and an African agenda have been prized more than any other foreignpolicy principles during the administration of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. This paperargues that the promotion of principles such as democracy, human rights and an African agendawas the result of the political culture of the ANC constructed during the liberation struggleagainst the apartheid regime. Because of South Africa’s history of racial discrimination andsegregation, the ANC was birthed during the struggle against apartheid. The ANC developed apolitical culture of equality, freedom and self-determination because these were the very valueswhich they were denied in their society. This political culture was highly esteemed that peoplelaid down their lives so as to one day see these values become a reality. This paper investigatedwhether or not this political culture has continued to be important to the ANC or if it wasneglected upon the ANC’S ascending power. This paper came to the conclusion that uponcoming to power in1994the ANC foreign policy principles reflected values of their politicalculture because more emphasis was placed on democracy, human rights and Africandevelopment. During the Mandela period political culture played a huge role and it wasexpressed through the foreign policy principles of democracy and human rights, as NelsonMandela became a campaigner of human rights everywhere on the globe. On the other hand, inthe Mbeki period political culture played a different role. This was expressed through the foreignpolicy principles of an African renaissance in a search for the freedom, equality and self-realization of the African continent. Therefore the political culture of the ANC constructed through the liberation struggle influenced and played a huge role in the foreign policy principlesof Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki in the post-apartheid era.Special focus was given to the foreign policy principles at that particular time frame. Thestudy involved analysis of the various foreign policy positions and decisions taken over thatperiod of time. The study will compared the two distinct administration eras, with view onforeign policy outcomes. The tools of analysis used in the study included foreign policydocuments, newspapers covering foreign policy statements in the periods, and speeches by thesetwo leaders.Having investigated the main influence of South Africa’s foreign policy during the Mandelaand Mbeki administrations, the study has concluded that the foreign policy principles during thisperiod were heavily influenced by the political culture constructed during the liberation period. Ithas argued that the democratization process (also referred to as self-determination) of SouthAfrica created a particular political culture (equality, freedom, African unity and self-determination) and that this political culture influenced the foreign policy principles adoptedafter democracy.