South Africa's destabilization policy: the Zimbabwe experience

A research paper on RSA's destabilization policy on independent Zimbabwe.The Southern African region is today still a battleground. In two broad interrelated struggles, the mass of the population of the region are ranged against the South African ruling class and its apartheid regime. The first of these is the advancing national liberation struggles inside South Africa and Namibia, led by the ANC, PAC and SWAPO. These struggles are assisted in the region by attempts to co-ordinate the policies of the six African states grouped together as the Frontline States - Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Secondly, the region is characterized by the struggle to advance different processes of economic and social development which are largely blocked by linkages between the economies of the states of the region and South African capitalism. In 1980, on the initiative of the Frontline States, nine Southern African states - Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe — formed themselves into the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC), whose principal objective was the extrication of its member states from the negative effects of the domination of the regional economy by South African capitalism. In simple terms, the issues at stake are clear. Pretoria is fighting to preserve apartheid’s capitalist domination, and imperialist hegemony in the sub-continent, and the people of Southern Africa are fighting to extricate themselves from capitalist exploitation and racial oppression. Confronted by a deep-seated crisis since the early 1970s, the racist minority regime has decided to regionalize apartheid and turn Southern Africa into a battlefield. It is within this broad framework that Pretoria’s strategy of regional destabilization can best be understood

South Africa's destabilisation policy: the Zimbabwe experience

The Southern African region is today still a battleground. In two broad interrelated struggles, the mass of the population of the region are ranged against the South African ruling class and its apartheid regime. The first of these is the advancing national liberation struggles inside South Africa and Namibia, led by the ANC, PAC and SWAPO. These struggles are assisted in the region by attempts to co-ordinate the policies of the six African states grouped together as the Frontline States - Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Secondly, the region is characterized by the struggle to advance different processes of economic and sociaj development which are largely blocked by linkages between the economies of the states of'the region and South African capitalism. In 1980, on the initiative of the Frontline States, nine Southern African states — Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe — formed themselves into the Southern African Pevelopment Co-ordination Conference (SADCC), whose principal objective was the extrication of its member states from the negative effects of the domination of the regional economy by South African capitalism. In simple terms, the issues at stake are clear. Pretoria is fighting to preserve apartheid's capitalist domination, and imperialist hegemony in the sub-continent, and the people of Southern Africa are fighting to extricate themselves from capitalist exploitation and racial oppression. Confronted by a deep-seated crisis since the early 1970s, the racist minority regime has decided to regionalize apartheid and turn Southern Africa into a battlefield. It is within this broad framework that Pretoria's strategy of regional destabilization can best be understood.,Zimbabwe Institute of Development Studies and the Institute of Southern African Studies, National University of Lesotho

The legacies of coercion and the challenges of contingency: Mozambican unions in difficult times

Although insecure work may be found everywhere, the general lack of secure work in emerging economies is a particularly striking feature of the contemporary condition, undermining the continued viability of the labour movement in such countries. Yet, this topic is rarely tackled directly in African studies or business history journals. The two key questions addressed in this paper are, first, to what extent does the labour movement’s past define their present and future, and second, what are the challenges and opportunities affecting their ability to mobilise workers, influence government and effectively tackle employment security? This article details how in Mozambique, unions’ ability to mobilise has been affected by: the post-colonial, post-conflict and post-socialist historical context; the resulting legacies of regional and racial discrimination; international imperatives for liberalisation and privatisation; challenging relationships with the country’s African neighbours; and high levels of informal sector work. In order to remain viable, key imperatives include: effectively influencing national government, engaging internationally and working with organisations representing informal sector workers

Africa and Globalisation Revisited

Paper Presented at the AAPS 15th BIennial Congress, June 27-29, 2005. Cairo Egyp

State - Civil Relations and Economic Management: the contribution of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Zimbabwe

Paper presented at a National Workshop sponsored by OSSREA on "Promoting Good Governance and Wider Civil Society Participation in Eastern and Southern Africa: The Case of Zimbabwe", 15 September 200

Youth and Higher Education in Africa : The Cases of Cameroon, South Africa, Eritrea and Zimbabwe

Student activism in Africa, at least since the early 1990s, has been preoccupied with popular struggles for democracy in both their respective countries and institutions of higher learning. The changing socio-economic and political conditions in many African countries, characterized by the decline in economic growth and the introduction of multi-party politics, among several other factors, have had different impact on students and student political organizations in African universities. This book recounts the responses of students to these changes in their attempt to negotiate better living and studying conditions. The four case studies contained in the book - Cameroon, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Eritrea - clearly reveal the very important aspects of the situation in which African students find themselves in many countries, and underscores the need to understand the character and development of higher education on the continent. Ministries of Higher Education, Vice Chancellors, Deans of Students, Student Unions and parents will find this book very useful in terms of understanding the tensions that often arise at institutions of higher learning and why solutions seem to be elusive

A Common Foreign Policy: The Case of SADC

Paper presented at a conference on "Regional Intergration and its Implications to SADC Countries, organised by the National Institute for Economic Policy (NIEP), Johannesburg, July 200

Plight of children in conflict and post - conflict societies: the case of Africa

Paper presented at the UNU-WIDER Conference on: Making Peace Work, 4-5 June 200

National and Sub-national Policies and Institutions

Since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), there has been a marked increase in national policies and legislation on climate change, however, these policies, taken together, have not yet achieved a substantial deviation in emissions from the past trend. Many baseline scenarios (those without additional policies to reduce emissions) show GHG concentrations that exceed 1000 ppm CO2eq by 2100, which is far from a concentration with a likely probability of maintaining temperature increases below 2 °C this century. Mitigation scenarios suggest that a wide range of environmentally effective policies could be enacted that would be consistent with such goals. This chapter assesses national and subnational policies and institutions to mitigate climate change in this context. It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of various mitigation policy instruments and policy packages and how they may interact either positively or negatively. Sector-specific policies are assessed in greater detail in the individual sector chapters (7–12)