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with more wealthy donors in the Global North, adding “a further dimension…toSouth Africa’s relations with the international community”. 387 The Document soughtthe regionalisation of the programme for broader impact in Southern Africa, as wellas the popularisation of the goals of the RDP in a bid to win financial support. Amember of DFA was seconded to the RDP office to strengthen coordinationbetween the two areas of government, giving an indication of the need forpragmatism and planning in South Africa’s foreign policy.In spite of new policy directions, however, Mandela was seen as making importantforeign policy decisions by relying largely on his own instincts and judgements. 388An anecdote told by Raymond Suttner bears out this contention. Suttner, the firstChair of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs, and a long-timeANC member, asserts that the timing of South Africa’s switching of officialdiplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1996 was the sole prerogative ofMandela. 389 While Mandela as an individual became a valuable resource in thediplomacy of the first ANC government, this was a double-edged sword asillustrated when limits to his usefulness became apparent, as in the Saro-Wiwa crisisin Nigeria; and his stature also delayed South Africa’s mutation into ‘just anothercountry’, 390 relieved of the baggage of high international expectation. Perceptions bydecision makers of South African ‘exceptionalism’ both posed the potential foroverstated foreign policy ambitions, and for the appearance of ‘smugness’ aboutSouth Africa’s relatively peaceful transition and elevated position in internationalsociety. 391Hence, Mandela’s presidency, steeped in moralism and an almost cosmopolitaninternational outlook that was supported by a degree of international goodwill,provided the perfect foil for what was to come in the pragmatic foreign policy of387 Department of Foreign Affairs. 1996. “Discussion Document: South African ForeignPolicy”, accessed online at: http://www.info.gov.za/greenpapers/1996/foraf1.htm on 24June, 2011.388 Black, “South Africa confronts Abacha’s Nigeria”, 41. See also, Donald G. McNeil Jr,“South Africa’s Foreign Policy: A Tough Balancing Act”, in New York Times, January 3,1997.389 Interview with author, 4 th July, 2007, Johannesburg.390 Peter Vale and Ian Taylor, “South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Foreign Policy Five YearsOn – From Pariah State to ‘Just Another Country’?, The Round Table, 88, Issue 352(1999).391 Chris Landsberg, “Promoting Democracy: The Mandela-Mbeki Doctrine”, Journal ofDemocracy, 11, No. 3 (2000): 107.166