Venue: Jan Smuts House
The Centre for Africa’s International Relations, in collaboration with the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and the office of the Dean of Humanities of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) hosted a roundtable at Jan Smuts House on 20 August under the theme Dr Dlamini-Zuma’s election: The future of African integration and South Africa’s foreign policy.
The event was opened by Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, National Director of SAIIA, and moderated by Prof. Gilbert Khadiagala, Head of the Department of International Relations at Wits.
As the first panellist, Prof. Achille Mbembe of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research made some preliminary observations to contextualise the election of Dlamini-Zuma. He noted that much of the structural instability in Africa is due to the absence of hegemonic power or a constellation of regional powers that can drive a cohesive African agenda. This creates a void at the heart of continental politics that allows external powers to interfere as has been seen in Libya.
