An institutionalist of note, Mbeki sought to create not only domestic institutional architecture to achieve his goals. He also contributed towards the creation of an external platform on which to execute his foreign policies.
While redesigning his domestic machinery, Mbeki simultaneously pushed for changes at the international level – ostensibly to create a propitious dispositional environment for the attainment of intentional goals espoused in the grand vision. The bigger vision was to extend the integrated approach of domestic policy-making through cooperation with Southern African neighbours to build a regional economic competitiveness (South Africa, The Presidency 2001: 20).
In a way, this could be reflective of Evans’ (1999: 627) prediction that South Africa, under Mbeki, would be on a quest to obtain maximum economic concessions from as many regional blocs as possible. This would be done while simultaneously concentrating on the areas within which South Africa has a competitive edge: the Southern African sub-region where South Africa enjoys a trade surplus. The logic of
this position would dictate that a winning strategy would be to pursue policies designed to wrest concessions from the global core and at the same time enlarge its share of the African market.
Evans’ (1999) seemed to anticipate coherence between the domestic, regional and even global plank on which Mbeki sought to executive is policies. This thinking appears to collapse South Africa’s foreign policy and foreign economic policy as coherent and systemic policies. This is a matter to which the study will return.
There were indications, though, that some of the domestic priorities had indeed found expression at the external level. The four pillars articulated by Mbeki’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (2000), found expression in NEPAD – a blueprint for Africa’s developmental goals that was adopted in 2001 by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the AU’s precursor. This was among the strongest indications of Mbeki’s hand in NEPAD’s concept document.
Consequently, South Africa viewed SADC as an implementing agent of NEPAD. South Africa’s vision for the Southern African region was one of the highest possible degrees of economic cooperation, mutual assistance and joint planning of regional development initiatives, leading to integration that was consistent with socio- economic, environmental and political realities. South Africa saw NEPAD as the continent’s instrument to advance people-centred development, based on democratic values and principles. Its success was to be dependent on Africans themselves. Africans needed to cooperate in areas such as intra-African trade, transport and joint regional infrastructure development, as well as information and technology. NEPAD was about genuine partnership between Africa and the rest of the world instead of paternalism (South Africa, Dept. of Foreign Affairs 2002).
In essence, Mbeki’s concept of an African Renaissance was a curtain-raiser for his ambitious and energetic campaign for NEPAD (Vale 2002:139). The government saw NEPAD as the operationalisation of the African Renaissance vision (DFA, 2002). There was a desire to reinvigorate South Africa’s foreign policy in terms of a broader continental – and even global – agenda that conformed, in the first instance, with the requirements of a developing country in an impoverished region and,
second, with the normative precepts of Mbeki’s own articulation of the African Renaissance (Alden & Le Pere 2004: 287).
The African Renaissance has had other implications for foreign policy. The Mbeki administration made a serious attempt to bridge the gulf with the rest of Africa. It identified a common destiny for South Africa and the rest of the continent. South Africa, under Mbeki, stressed the need for an African commonwealth as opposed to any (contested) national interest. According to Vale and Maseko (2002), the idea was promoted that the transformation of society at home (domestic level of analysis) must ultimately grow in line with the advancement of African development in general (international level of analysis) – (Bischoff 2003: 191).
The conceptualisation of the African Renaissance informed the over-arching framework of South Africa’s foreign policy which was NEPAD (Hughes 2004: 9). The NEPAD strategy set forth two broad goals: one political and one economic, neither achievable without the other. From a political perspective, the document stresses the importance of good [political] governance, peace and security as conditions for sustainable development. These political goals are, in turn, a precondition for attracting investments – both domestic and foreign – on the continent. From an economic perspective, at the heart of NEPAD, are four outcomes: Economic growth, development and increased employment; reduction of poverty and inequality; diversification of productive activities, enhanced international competitiveness and increased exports; and increased African integration (African Union 2001: 15).
NEPAD is predicated on, and consistent with, core philosophical tenets of South African foreign policy such as a commitment to multilateralism, human rights and global governance reform. NEPAD is quintessentially a visionary idea in documentary form. While setting concrete targets for the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, it is clearly propelled by a vision of a transformed African continent and a reconfigured pattern of African-global trade and investment relations. The ideological premise for NEPAD is squarely located within the concept of an African Renaissance (Hughes 2004: 79).
While Mbeki played a central role in guiding the drafting process, (African Union, African Peer Review Secretariat 2007: 155), the final NEPAD document reflects a broad consensus between the technocratic drafters and the initiating heads of state on the need for political and economic good governance and the imperative for investor-friendly policies across the continent (Hughes 2004: 87). NEPAD was adopted by the OAU in 2001, providing long-term political direction to South Africa’s regional integration efforts in Africa (South Africa, The Presidency 2003: 66).
NEPAD’s document further states that a significant proportion of domestic savings in African states is lost due to flights of capital which could only be reversed if African economies become attractive locations for residents to hold their wealth. Therefore, there was also an urgent need to create conditions to promote private sector investments by both domestic and foreign investors (NEPAD, 2001: 36). This provision led to the conclusion that Mbeki’s influence ensured that elements of GEAR, such as the need to create a propitious environment for investments, were found in NEPAD (Landsberg 2007: 211).
Assessing South Africa’s role on the continent in the first decade of democracy, Dlamini-Zuma (2004) observed that South Africa had been fully integrated into the world as a responsible member of the international community, and had conducted itself in a manner consistent with the ideals and values enshrined in the South African constitution, in particular the promotion of democratic governance founded on the pillars of non-racialism and non-sexism. South Africa established itself as a force in contributing to the global effort for sustainable peace and people-centred socio-economic development based on a firm belief in multilateralism and rules- based international order. The government also expanded the horizons for its citizenry to freely exploit opportunities across international boundaries. South Africa was a truly established African country (Dlamini-Zuma 2004).
One can reasonably conclude that from the conceptualisation and articulation – both at the domestic institutional and external institutional levels - Mbeki’s foreign economic policy articulations sought to attract investments onto the African continent. Africa’s development depended on private sector commitments.
His foreign policy articulations suggest he would have liked to see more domestic corporations leading the charge with regard to investment on the continent. This is not to discount his strong messages about the role of Foreign Direct Investment in general, in aiding sustainable development on the African continent. Indeed, NEPAD was premised on attracting FDI as a means to realise development in a context of a political peaceful and stable environment underpinned by democratic ideals.