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The party’s commitment to the promotion of human rights in particular, as set outin Nelson Mandela’s article in Foreign Affairs in 1993, set it on a potential collisioncourse with its African neighbours and other long-term supporters of the liberationstruggle, such as Cuba and Libya. Following the public relations and foreign policydisasters over the Nigerian affair in 1995 248 , the South African government, soughtto modify its principled stances on certain international issues by funnelling itsresponses through multilateral institutions. One observer went as far as to sketchthe new-found emphasis on multilateralism close to the end of Mandela’s tenure asa ‘cover’ for the country’s retreat from its strong human rights position. 249Nonetheless, the end of Mandela’s presidency saw South Africa’s status substantiallyelevated as a peace-broker, mediator and examplar of negotiated settlements, in theinternational community.Yet, a palpable tension remained between realism and idealism, between thecountry’s perceived commercial, trade and political interests and its aspirational roleas a moral crusader for human rights and democracy. The institutions of foreignpolicymaking were seen by many in the ANC to be unresponsive to the concernsof the majority of South Africans, and dominated in the middle ranks by oldregimeofficials. Reconciling these differing foreign-policy priorities andinstitutional tensions became an overriding objective of the incoming governmentin 1999. 250With the consolidation of public policymaking after the ANC’s resounding victoryin the 1999 general election, South Africa’s foreign affairs vision became thefunction of the insights and worldviews of a small number of individuals, most ifnot all of them, high-ranking members of the ANC. This exclusivity wasunderscored by the departure of the National Party, the former governing party,from the GNU in 1996, and by the expiration of this transitional condition in1999. 251 The new institutional makeup, termed ‘integrated governance’ (see p114 of248 For a detailed discussion, see David R. Black, “The New South Africa confrontsAbacha’s Nigeria: The politics of human rights in a seminal relationship”,Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, 41, No.2 (2003).249 David R. Black, “Lever or Cover? South Africa, multilateral institutions and thepromotion of Human Rights”, in South Africa’s Multilateral Diplomacy and GlobalChange, eds., P. Nel, I.Taylor and J. van der Westhuizen (London: Ashgate, 2001); T.Maluwa, “Human Rights and Foreign Policy in Post-Apartheid South Africa”, in HumanRights and Comparative Foreign Policy, ed., D. Forsythe (Tokyo: UN University Press)cited in Black and Wilson, “Rights, region and identity”, 29.250 Alden and le Pere, “South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Foreign Policy”, 26.251 The Government of National Unity (GNU) was a temporary arrangement in terms ofSouth Africa’s interim constitution of 1993-1996, whereby any political party claiming atleast 20 seats in the National Assembly could send a member to Cabinet and participate118