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South Africa’s major foreign policy pre-occupation, Zimbabwe. This was owing tothe sensitivity of the Zimbabwe issue for domestic politics, given that a keyprotagonist in the crisis was a political party with roots in the labour movement, thevery type of opposition Mbeki feared most at home.National Power and State Power in Mbeki’s Second Term: 2004-2008Material Power into Political InterestsThe dual themes of the ANC’s 2004 election campaign were “A Better Life for All”and “A People’s Contract”. These slogans signalled the urgency with which theparty would seek to fulfil its domestic and international goals in its third term as thegoverning party of South Africa. For foreign policy this was interpreted asincremental increases in the annual appropriation to the Department of ForeignAffairs (from R2,3 billion in 2003/4 to R4,3 billion in 2007/8). 439 Large amounts offunding were also made available by the National Treasury for additional spending,such as the construction of the Pan-African Parliament (R113 million), which SouthAfrica won the bid to host. Additional resources were allocated to South Africa’sincipient development aid initiative, the African Renaissance Fund.Thus, the executive faced little credible opposition in securing funds for theexpansive goals of South Africa’s foreign policy. The Department of Foreign Affairswas not the only beneficiary, as the Department of Defence also receivedallocations which underwrote the maintenance of South African troops in at leastfour countries, Comores (2006), Burundi (2006-7), DRC (2006-7) andDarfur/Sudan (2006). ANC dominance in parliament was a secondary factor in thislow level of opposition, as Parliament, too, voiced concerns about itsmarginalisation in deployment decisions. 440 More important was the integratedgovernance system, and the dominance by the ANC’s NEC of the Executive. A keystep in favour of solidifying South Africa’s capabilities and modalities forparticipating in international peacekeeping operations was the 1999 “White Paper439 DFA Annual Reports. Accessed online on 9 May, 2011.440 Parliamentary Monitoring Group. 2003. “Discussion: White Paper on Peacekeeping”,26 March, 2003. Justice and Constiutional Development Portfolio Committee:Parliament of South Africa. Accessed at: http://www.pmg.org.za/minutes/20030325-white-paper-peacekeeping-discussion on 10 May, 2011.183