Analysing and tracking the evolution of South Africa’s foreign policy in the democratic era through parliamentary debate

Abstract

The year 1994 marked the beginning of a new era in South Africa as the country became a democracy, stepping out of the international isolation that dogged the Apartheid government. The question must therefore be asked what evolution has South Africa’s foreign policy undertaken over the first 25 years of South Africa’s democracy and what changes have occurred? Data analysis through the use of text mining will be done on the budget vote speeches delivered by the South African ministers of foreign affairs/international relations to the South African parliament and the subsequent participation of political parties in the budget vote debate. This analysis will be conducted through a geo-political study of the data, sentiment analysis and a thematic analysis in order to track evolution of South Africa’s foreign policy for the period 1994-2018