In a globalising world, insecurity anywhere is a threat to security everywhere. In this context, it is with pride that I observe President Thabo Mbeki trumpeting the principles of good governance enshrined in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).
It is also with pride that I watch South African troops being deployed on the border of Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi and now Liberia.
However, this pride is quickly replaced with despair when the realisation hits that Nepad is heavy on rhetoric and light on substance.
A case in point is Zimbabwe, where the phrase ”quiet diplomacy” will forever in history join other infamous phrase like Chester Crocker’s ”constructive engagement”. As with the latter policy, ”quiet diplomacy” works to endorse the status quo in Zimbabwe and its corrupt, autocratic ruling elite.
This failure in Zimbabwe is mirrored by the failure of local foreign policy to secure sustainable peace in Sudan, Angola, Burundi and the DRC.
These failures point to the malaise afflicting Pretoria’s foreign policy: the moral high ground has been lost.
For example, according to the Medical Research Council, 89 murders are committed each day in South Africa. These figures raise an interesting problem for Mbeki. How does he convince belligerents in Burundi to stop fighting when the murder rate in South Africa is that of a mini-civil war?
How does he raise the problem of corruption in Nigeria with President Olusegun Obasanjo when the corruption surrounding the arms deal has tarnished the reputation of his own government?
At a briefing at the Saldana military base, members of South Africa’s parliamentary portfolio committee on defence heard that:
l More than half the country’s 76 000 soldiers are medically unfit.
l Many of the riflemen and servicemen are regarded as too old for deployment and active service.
l Lack of funds means that the army can deploy only one operational brigade of 3 000 and that it is ”impossible” to deploy 19 regular companies and 23 reserve platoons.
l Training has virtually come to a halt.
Under these conditions, for how much longer can we continue to engage in peacekeeping activities on the continent without lack of capacity overwhelming our military?
In other words, the ability of South Africa to lead by example while holding the Nepad flame aloft has been severely eroded.
Africa needs a strong South Africa. If we do not get it right on the home front, I fear that Nepad will remain but a mirage for the long-suffering people of this continent.
Professor Hussein Solomon lectures in the department of political sciences, University of Pretoria, and is the 2003 Bradlow Fellow at the South African Institute for International Affairs