South Africa's Role in NEPAD: A Regional Hegemony or Pivotal State?

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) framework is a serious attempt to put Africa into a global economy through close relationships with the G7/G8. The stated objective is to create conditions where levels of aid and private capital flows will increase and be sustained if Africa can develop strong democratic institutions to ensure the rule of law, good governance, and respect for minority rights and human rights in general. Among the five 'initiating members' - South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Senegal and Egypt, South Africa is the strongest, both in economic and political influence in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). NEPAD was designed by these five countries and sold to the G7/G8 as Africa's response to addressing regional economic transformation. However, many leaders elsewhere, NGOS and other civil society groups accuse the "five" of ditching the pan-Africanist model of universal solidarity (still advocated by the African Union (AU)) in favor of acceptance of western economic and political ideas in the globalized political economy. South Africa's role is increasingly being questioned elsewhere in Africa. Critics see South Africa's leadership in NEPAD as self-serving. They point to its activist foreign policy in the region; its peace-keeping forces and the pace and size of its investment in SSA as regional hegemony. Proponents view South Africa's role in NEPAD as necessary of a pivotal state that acts in the regional interest in collaboration with other countries. The paper argues that both positions contain a shade of realism, given the history of South Africa prior to 1994. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]