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While this figure is small in global terms, and in comparison to other stateexpenditure, it experienced rapid growth during Mbeki’s tenure.The role of the Executive: The PresidencyAs noted by a proximate observer, “…in the case of South Africa, it is not so muchthe executive branch overall that dominates foreign policy as the presidency”. 229The Mbeki period was a period of centralisation and consolidation of foreignpolicymaking. This accompanied a sharpening of South Africa’s foreign policy goalsand vision, along with institutional streamlining that centralised the policymakingpower of the Presidency. Paradoxically, while this state of affairs had the potentialto give the ANC a prime position in the formulation of foreign policy, itaccompanied a process of distancing between Mbeki and the party’s rank and file,ultimately with disastrous results for his presidency.Mbeki presided over a restructuring of the Office of the President upon his electionin June 1999. This process formed part of a broader move toward ‘integratedgovernance’, that brought the private offices of the President and Vice-President,the Cabinet Office and the Policy Coordination and Advisory Services Unit underthe tutelage of a single Director-General (Chief Administrator) in the Presidency,the Mbeki-acolyte, Rev. Frank Chikane. 230Key individuals involved in policymaking under Mbeki included: his ForeignMinister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who served throughout his two terms ofoffice; Director-General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba(2003 – 2011); Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aziz Pahad; and, AdvocateMojanku Gumbi, legal adviser to the president. At least two of these individuals,Zuma and Pahad, held high office in the ANC (as members of the NationalExecutive Committee, or NEC). More than this, they emanated from ‘the sameANC political school’ as Mbeki, forging a strong strategic link. 231 This ‘school’comprises ANC cadres who spent a significant period of time living in exile duringapartheid, and may be argued to have held more outward-looking (or, somewhat229 Ibid., p297.230 For a full discussion of ‘integrated governance’ in the context of foreign policymaking,see Van Nieuwkerk, “South Africa and African Crises”, 103-107.231 Van Nieuwkerk, “South Africa and African Crises”, 102.114