UNDER apartheid, South Africa was dubbed a pariah state. Locally and globally the apartheid government was accused of violating human rights and ruining the country’s international relations prospects.
As the country prepared for the new political dispensation in the early 1990s following FW De Klerk’s historic speech that liberation movements would be unbanned and their leaders released from jail, South Africa embarked on a new path in global politics.
In this regard, Nelson Mandela wrote a paper titled “South Africa’s future foreign policy”. The thrust of his argument in this document was that South Africa’s foreign policy agenda under the new political dispensation post-apartheid should be anchored on respect for human rights.
Mandela pleaded with the global community to embrace this idea.
Internally, when the Interim Constitution was crafted in…
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Sunday Independent (Digital) - 1 Issue, 2025-03-23