Book Description

The publication of this timely book has been occasioned by the tenth anniversary celebrations of democracy in South Africa, the last country in southern Africa to be liberated. This book, which grew out of a November 2003 conference, goes beyond the parochial and uses the milestone of South Africa's democratic celebrations to focus on the health and quality of democracy and governance in southern Africa more broadly. In the spirit of ten years of democratisation in South Africa, the Centre for Policy Studies, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa and the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy thought it appropriate to place the focus on the broader region and consider the state of governance and democratisation in southern Africa. The book acknowledges that the apartheid years hugely destabilised South Africa's neighbours and negatively impacted on the pan-African spirit throughout the continent. It recognises that because of both their common history and geography, the states of southern Africa have, in important aspects, a shared future. Thus a ten-year review project that focuses only on assessing conditions in South Africa since 1994 would be incomplete, and it is, therefore, proper that this book focuses on the broader southern Africa region.