6.2. African Regionalism in a Global Neo-liberal Environment
6.2.3 SADC Regionalism and Global Neo-liberal Capitalism
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loss in revenue from CFTA and TFTA, the individual countries will not be able to improve on the infrastructure which is necessary for deeper regional integration.
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In the neo-liberal approach to regional integration, civil society and non-state actors have increasingly become key partners in a pluralist approach in which the role of the state continues to diminish. In the SADC the realist and neo-liberalist approaches to regional integration have at different times influenced the Southern African region integration. In the early years of regionalism in SADCC, politics and the state elite were key drivers of regionalism. In later years, as contained in Article 23 of the SADC Treaty, there was room for non-governmental organisations to be fully involved in regional integration (SADC, 1992).
In more recent years calls for greater involvement of the non-state/non-governmental actors have become louder. This is evidenced by the recent African Economic Platform which was launched in Mauritius over the period 20 to 22 March 2017 by the African Union. The African Economic Platform (AEP), informed by the African Union Agenda 2063, was organised to bring African heads of state, academics and leaders or captains of industry together to discuss how African development can be achieved faster. The thrust of the AEP was to bring about a collective ownership of development goals by heads of state, academics and business people. This has been a clear acknowledgement that regionalism needed to become more liberal than before in Africa.
Indeed, the SADC as a sub-regional grouping of the AU is bound by the AU Vision 2063.
Mansfield and Milner (1997) observed that the new international political and economic order dictated that regionalism should be viewed as a way of getting closer towards the maximisation of state welfare and interests by cooperation. In this case the cooperation was to be broader and not only limited to the heads of states or states, but also involving the civil society and private business people (Mansfield and Milner, 1997:6).
Another approach which is evident in the SADC regional integration is one which functionalists like Mitrany (1996) defined as emphasising the functional needs that persuade a region to create an institution. According to Mitrany, the expansion of economic activities leads to the requirement for states to put in place a measure of cooperation which allows them to have open economies in the framework of trade liberalisation. Functionalism is about how political divisions which are a major source of conflict can be managed by putting an international functional institution in place that can take care of the interests of all states, and the regional economic integration would eventually lead to regional political unity. Again, a liberal
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dimension is evident in the functionalist approach to integration as the economic structures lead the process and are regarded as more important than political structures (Mitrany, 1996).
Before discussing and analysing the more recent approaches to integration that SADC is now warming up to, this thesis will study the early stages of integration in SADC which were influenced by the political climate of the 1960s and 1970s. The early stages of regional integration in SADC were motivated by security and political demands, thus taking a realist perspective (Lee 2003:29). The drive for economic development was taken much later in SADC.
From the early 1960s a number of African states had attained independence and had a strong desire to develop along the lines of industrialisation. In a way, this was an effort to empower the indigenous African people to participate in their economies. Since most independent African states relied on the export of raw material, regional integration was seen as a way of dealing with external pressure from developed countries or former colonisers who usually offered partnerships with some conditionality.
The SADC was formed after the transformation of the SADCC which also evolved from the Front Line States (FLS). Now the SADC which exists in a new world order where there is neo- liberal capitalism as the economic hegemony for the whole world. In the early stages of the SADC, as members of the FLS, countries had an interest in enhancing regional security. Faced with regional security challenges, Southern African States formed the FLS in order to fight colonialism. The objective was to bring about independence and majority rule for Namibia and Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia. As Zimbabwe’s independence was almost certain, it was observed that the struggle against apartheid required a long-term commitment and leaders decided to formalise the FLS relationship into some institutionalised cooperation. This saw the coming into existence of the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference (SADCC) after the 01 April 1980 Lusaka Declaration. SADCC was largely a political grouping (Olusoji; 2003:2).
However, there was explicit recognition that economic factors were important, and specifically of concern was to find ways of removing the regional constraints which came about as a result of economic dependence on Southern Africa. The constraints limited the autonomy of the regional decision makers. According to Olusoji (2003), the SADCC was established to mitigate political and economic aggression from South Africa under apartheid rule. The regional grouping was
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formed as a way of countering and restricting South Africa as a regional hegemony. This was typical of a regional integration that took a realist approach with the states being the major and only players in the regional integration. The SADCC had a membership of nine countries, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. As suggested by the name SADCC, the need for integrated regional development was also accepted. (Olusoji, 2003:272; Hwang, 2006:1).
In August 1992, the SADC declaration and treaty were signed by the heads of states who met in Windhoek, Namibia. The Treaty was to become law once it was ratified by individual member states in September 1993. Decisions, policies and agreements were effectively to become legally binding. The regional grouping thus acquired the necessary legal framework to enforce its decisions agreements and policies. For member states that violated the treaty, the treaty gave the region the power to enforce sanctions (Olusoji, 2003). The SADC was formed after Namibia had obtained its independence, and a refocused regional integration emerged. The objectives of SADC outlined in the common Agenda of the 1992 treaty were as follows:
1. Promoting development;
2. Poverty reduction and economic growth through regional integration.
3. Consolidating, defending and maintaining democracy, peace, security and stability.
4. Promoting common political values and institutions which are democratic, legitimate and effective.
5. Strengthening links among the people of the region.
6. Mobilising regional international private and public resources for the development of the region. (SADC, 1992)
The emphasis for the SADC was to promote collaborative economic growth and to promote democracy in the region. These were clear signs of how neo-liberalism affected the character and purpose of SADC. Furthermore, Article 23 of the Treaty acknowledged the need for the involvement of the SADC people and non-governmental organisations in shaping the future of the region collectively. This was a clear warming up of the region to the pressure of neo-liberal capitalism. By giving emphasis to what they called the people of the region, the SADC to an
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extent promoted a regional integration which empowered the people of the region, which resonates with the later policies such as the African economic ethic of indigenisation. Also important to the SADC was the need to eliminate poverty. At this stage the SADC shifted from being a group which sought to liberate the region politically and to counter the economic hegemony of South Africa. More economic collaboration was evident of the private sector in economic development as noted by Article 23 of the Treaty. Also noted was the need to give emphasis to democratic processes. The influence of the global neo-liberal capitalism was again evident at this stage of SADC evolution. Greater prominence was later to be given to neo- liberalism, as was the case with the formation of the African Economic Platform in March 2017 in Mauritius.
The SADC membership latter grow to 15 with South Africa, Namibia and Democratic Republic of the Congo, Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius joining the grouping. The African Union held the African Economic Platform (AEP) in March 2017. This platform was institutionalised as a new annual activity for African leaders and was meant to create an opportunity for dialogue amongst a range of players and sectors such as political leaders, business leaders and academics.
It was noted that an all-inclusive approach was critical for economic transformation in Africa.
The objectives of the platform were among other issues to:
• Engage in purposeful multi-stakeholder dialogues on issues of common interest led by Africans and meant to influence the regional policies through direct engagement with leaders.
• Establish plans for common action informed by multi country and multi sector priorities.
• Work with leaders in African governments to do away with policy obstacles that prohibited doing business in Africa; put in place and put into operation, strategies for economic diversification and promotion of industrialisation and how to mobilise domestic and other resources.
• Call for the removal of communication barriers and obstacles that prohibited flow of goods, people and services across Africa, create common platforms for pushing forward the common Africa position on issues relating to global affairs and increase the global awareness of Africa’s new role in international affairs.
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Clear in these objectives is a strong desire to promote indigenous African entrepreneurs who will drive the African economic development agenda. This thinking again resonates well with the African economic ethic of indigenisation. The new thinking that is being called for through the AEP bears elements of neo-liberal capitalism which seek to reduce government regulation of the economy. The collective approach brings about some form of regional capitalism which supports the emergence of indigenous regional capitalists who will then drive economic development and growth. Evident in the AEP is the neo-liberal capitalist agenda. The SADC as a sub-regional body of the AU is bound to be agreeable to this new thinking. In any case the SADC treaty article 23 embraces the idea of private economic players and the involvement of the people of the region.
With the end of the Cold War, the form and character of regional integration was realigned to respond to the global demands as prescribed by global neo-liberal capitalism. One could argue that the call for greater opening up by regions could have been a way of pressuring some regional integrations which were modelled around using regional integration as a way of protecting the region from global neo-liberal capitalist competition. The tendency to promote indigenous entrepreneurs is evident in SADC. While there is this thrust and policy pronunciation at the regional level, the actual practice of promoting indigenous or local economic players has been done largely in individual countries, but without noted success as Murove (2010) has argued. The need to have a regional approach could offer interesting and new perspectives that can help move the SADC or Africa as a whole out of the vices of poverty and underdevelopment.