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liberation movement, has assumed more nuanced tones in the foreign policy of anANC in government. This was especially true in the context of the closing years ofMbeki’s presidency, as the ramifications of the 1999 arms deal, the controversysurrounding the government’s handling of HIV/AIDS and the Zimbabwe issue, allconspired to unsettle the ideological hegemony of the ‘African nationalist’ factionwithin the organisation. At the same time, it appears that for reasons of politicaland economic expedience, ‘African nationalism’ is retained as the guidingphilosophy of ANC domestic and foreign policy, with the government preferring totread carefully around the domestic political crises of its neighbours, especiallyZimbabwe and Swaziland. A more consistently solidarist and Marxist outlook oninternational affairs, as the ANC possessed in exile, and indeed as some sections ofthe ANC and its alliance partners still subscribe to, would result in greater activismon human rights and economic equity issues in the southern African region andfurther afield. The ANC in government, while holding the perception of a hostile,unipolar world, dominated by the USA and its allies, is hamstrung – and limited torhetoric – by its economic-industrial context and the development blueprint itsubscribes to. This route to development is predicated on foreign investment andSouth Africa’s outward economic orientation, and thus requires favourable relationswith the world’s major economic players.The literature on South Africa’s activist, internationalist foreign policy curiouslyomits to examine the role played in this foreign policy posture by South Africa’sdominant political party and the only governing party of a free South Africa, theAfrican National Congress. The ANC plays a key role in the generation of interestsat the national level, by virtue of its dominance of South Africa’s political life, andby the ‘dual mandates’ of key government figures as central party figures. However,the ANC has not influenced South African foreign policy postures in the mannerthat would have been predicted by its liberation struggle heritage, and its earlystatements on foreign policy. The ANC in government, under Thabo Mbeki, didnot manage to successfully chart a visionary course at the same time as retainingpragmatic prerogatives.The primary source of institutional and political opposition to the ANC came, notfrom the Department of Foreign Affairs, or the oversight mechanisms of the284