South Africa's integration efforts within the Southern African Development Community: Regional supremacy or coalition?

• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Author: Daniel N. Mlambo,Olusola Ogunnubi
• Date: 01 November 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1856

ACADEMIC PAPER

South Africa's integration efforts within the Southern African

Development Community: Regional supremacy or coalition?

Daniel N. Mlambo

1

|Olusola Ogunnubi

2

1

Department of Public Administration,

University of Zululand, Richards Bay, South

Africa

2

Faculty of Management Sciences,

Mangosuthu University of Technology,

Durban, South Africa

Correspondence

Olusola Ogunnubi, Mangosuthu University of

Technology, Umlazi, Durban 4013, South

Africa.

Email: ogunnubi.olusola@mut.ac.za

Regional integration has manifested itself to be an integral part of Africa's postcolonial

economic growth blueprints. It was viewed as a mechanism for African states to

enhance their development and work collectively, improve their cooperation, and

enhance peace and security. Nevertheless, regional integration initiatives are often

seen to succeed when spearheaded by regional hegemons. By narrowing this to

southern Africa, from 1994 after the first‐ever democratic elections and after also

becoming a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), South

Africa was regarded as a state capable of spearheading regional integration. This was

a result of its relatively robust economy and military power in comparison with other

SADC states. As a result, it was poised to utilize these vast resources to the benefit of

the SADC. However, over the last two and a half decades, its regional stance has

often come under a lot of scrutinizing due to its ambiguous foreign policy doctrine,

particularly in southern Africa. Basically, its post‐1994 foreign policy projections

towards the region have often not been implemented as attested and have often

lacked clear articulation. Nevertheless, this paper argues that South Africa has made

positive strides in the SADC's regional integration endeavors post its democratic tran-

sition. Its vast regional investments and diplomatic and military interventions have

played a crucial role in the development and security reforms in the region. Although

it is portrayed as a regional hegemon, it has nevertheless used its regional standpoint

to the benefit of the region and further contributed to regional integration post the

apartheid era.

1|INTRODUCTION

Regional integration has been observed as a vital factor as a result of

various possible gains for its member nations. Generally, the need for

regional integration is drawn from factors that compose of improved

trade prospects, abolishing of tariffs, attract foreign direct invest-

ments, better market share, bilateral engagements, regional security

mechanisms, and infrastructural development. From an African

perspective, regional integration was regarded as a means of rectifying

the continents underdevelopment, colonial heritage, and dependence

on western donors particularly post the colonial era where African

states could know partake in continental politics and trade on their

own and not in the hands of their erstwhile colonial rulers. (Jiboku &

Okeke‐Uzodike, 2016).

South Africa is regarded as one of the biggest regional powers in

the African continent and by far the biggest in Southern Africa.

Although Pretoria possesses ample amount of political and economic

potential, there has been vast scholarly debate (particularly post‐

1994) whether it has duly utilized this potential for the benefit of

Southern Africa's regional integration and governance attempts.

Through his seminal paper entitled “South Africa's Future Foreign

Policy”in November 1993, former president of South Africa Nelson

Mandela emphasized that

Southern Africa commands a special significance in our

foreign policy, we are intimately part of Southern

Africa and our destiny is linked to that of a region.

(Mandela, 1993)

Received: 24 July 2018 Accepted: 2 August 2018

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1856

J Public Affairs. 2018;18:e1856.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1856

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of7