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Chapter 5: Rhetoric and Restraint: The State, the ANCand Internationalism in South Africa’s Foreign Policy“…South Africa will not be indifferent to the rights of others. Human rightswill be the light that guides our foreign affairs”.Nelson Mandela, 1993, Foreign Affairs 320When I look around the world, I see very few countries with greater potential to help shape the 21 st centurythan the new South Africa.Warren Christopher, 1996 321IntroductionIn terms of traditional, material, measures of capability, South Africa has faredrelatively well over the last two decades. As the largest and most industrialisedeconomy on the African continent, along with ever growing commercial interests,South Africa has been labelled an ‘emerging middle power’, 322 a ‘continentalpowerhouse’ and ‘regional hegemon’, to name a few. These labels all point to thecountry’s position of pre-eminence in Africa, as a potential leader, engine foreconomic growth, and force for peace. South Africa experienced a surge in its yearlyGDP growth rates, from negative territory (-0.3% in 1990) in the early 1990s, to4.3% by 1996, and 5.5% one year before the end of Thabo Mbeki’s presidency in2007. 323 Most significantly, and controversially, the executive engaged in a strategicarms procurement exercise in 1999, initially valued at some R29 million (aboutUS$4 million at the time), in spite of the contraction of its conventional forces inline with the defence posture outlined in 1998. 324 The weapons procured weregeared towards ‘primary’ missions, and deemed unsuitable to the ‘secondary’missions in which South Africa was more likely to participate, i.e. peacekeeping320 Nelson Mandela, “South Africa’s Future Foreign Policy”, Foreign Affairs, 72, No.5(1993): 88.321 Warren Christopher, “The US View of South Africa”, International Update 19 (1996).Cited in Maxi Schoeman, “South Africa as an Emerging Middle Power: 1994-2003”, inState of the Nation, 2003-4, eds., John Daniel, Adam Habib and Roger Southall(Pietermaritzburg: HSRC Press, 2003).322 Schoeman, “South Africa as an Emerging Middle Power”.323 World Bank Data, South Africa: GDP growth (annual %), accessed at:http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG on 23 November 2010.324 Department of Defence. 1998. South African Defence Review.143