THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN POST-APARTHEID DEFENCE

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Date

2011-05-13

Authors

Magano, Agnes Sherly

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Abstract

The mid-1970s South Africa saw the emergence of movements opposing apartheid policies. The composition of these movements have varied from individuals coming together in pursuit of basic social rights to the more complex formations seeking a complete overhaul of all apartheid machinery which would translate into democracy. These movements or formations together with a host of others became known as civil society in the post-apartheid South Africa. The purpose of this research was to investigate the role of South African civil society in post-apartheid defence policy-making. It sought to achieve this by analysing previous and current trends followed by government in the defence policy-making processes. In particular, it focused on government’s engagement of civil society in defence policy-making processes, periodised as (i) the development and adoption of the White Paper on Defence (1996), (ii) Defence Review (1998) and briefly touches on the current policy review known as (iii) the Defence Update (2004). Case study materials were gathered by means of primary and secondary data collection methods where the former utilised semi-structured interviews with key individuals involved in defence policy-making processes. Much has been published about the first two cases and secondary data was collected from available literature on the subject. The examination of civil society participation in defence policy shows that South African civil society has made significant progress in penetrating and engaging the government in processes previously perceived as the reserve of the elite. The 1990 to 1998 period experienced unprecedented political fluidity, where civil society made an impact in influencing policy outcomes. However, the findings identified a trend in a review currently being carried out by the Department of Defence (DOD) where there has been a notable reduction of civil society participation, and very little being revealed about it. ix The study concludes that civil society is an important player in the democratisation project and the Ministry of Defence needs to ensure that civil society remains a player in policy making by strengthening its involvement in this process. One of the key recommendations is that both the Ministry and civil society establish parameters for the latter’s participation in policy processes, with a view to establishing of a forum comprised of all key actors in the sector i.e. policy makers, academics, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), research institutions etc. to facilitate dialogue on policy issues

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MM - P&DM

Keywords

Civil society, Defence policies

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