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and indeed, ‘anti-imperialism’ had attained new significance in South Africa’s stateidentity, 403 as domestically, Mbeki had resuscitated the label of apartheid as‘colonialism of a special type’. 404 Indeed, Mbeki and the ANC also used thisterminology (‘global apartheid’) to describe the state of global socio-economicinequality. Use of the term almost immediately forged solidarity between otherformerly colonised states, particularly those still undergoing development.Unfortunately for Mbeki and for the fate of South Africa’s image abroad, this newstate identity was not an uncomplicated one, and the very image of corrupt andinept African leadership Mbeki had attempted to challenge was confirmed, andindeed caricatured, by his own action and inaction, notably on AIDS andZimbabwe. This does not diminish the power of this identity as a perceptive lensthrough which Mbeki and his closest advisers weighed decisions about SouthAfrica’s international activism, however. In fact, Western criticism may havestrengthened these perceptual lenses.c. The party policymaking processThe African National Congress’s highest decision-making body is the 5-yearlyNational Conference. One close observer of the ANC draws a distinction betweendecisions taken by government office-holding party members, and those taken bythe decision-making structures of the ANC as a whole. 405 This means that majordecisions that do not form part of resolutions emanating from NationalConferences, or that are collective decisions of the NEC (the highest decisionmakingbody between Conferences), are in fact the decisions of components of theorganisation that do not necessarily enjoy the assent of the broader membership.This was most clearly evident in the monumental struggle over the replacement of403 See Laurie Nathan, “Anti-Imperialism Trumps Human Rights: South Africa’sApproach to the Darfur Conflict”, Working Paper 31, Crisis States Research Centre,LSE, February 2008, pp5-8.404 Interview with the author, 24 July, 2007, Pretoria. ‘Colonialism of a special type’ is aterm that described South Africa’s unique situation in which the colonial ruling class –usually located in the metropole – and the oppressed colonial majority were located inthe same country. Adapted from O’Malley, Padraig. No date. Website of the NelsonMandela Centre of Memory and Dialogue. Accessed at:http://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03005/06lv03132/07lv03140/08lv03144.htm on 5 September, 2011.405 Interview with Raymond Suttner, 4 July, 2007.171