Abstract
The study of territorial disputes continues to grow in significance as these disputes have been linked to the eruption of wars which have continued to rise and fall over the globe, threatening the stability of numerous states directly and indirectly. The need to study individual actors such as Presidents has been continuing to grow as their influence on foreign policy including foreign policy towards disputing states has been realised. Studies of such nature have been conducted for Presidents of the United States by scholars such as Pious (2001) and Leuchtenburg (2015), however in the case of South Africa it has been rarely if ever studied as studies that have been conducted have either been state-level rather than individual-level analyses, or they have had a more broad foreign policy based focus rather than one focused on territory disputing states as seen in Khan (2021) and Eksteen (2024) respectively. Thus, this study aims to answer the following research question: Do changes to South Africa's presidents (incumbency) influence the country's position on international territorial disputes with an investigation on Nelson Mandela (1994-1999), Thabo Mbeki (1999-2008), Jacob Zuma (2009-2018) and Cyril Ramaphosa (2018-present). To this end, it will examine the differences and similarities in the positions of the successive presidents towards the following disputing dyads: Eritrea-Ethiopia, Western Sahara-Morocco, South Sudan-Sudan, Botswana-Namibia, Taiwan-China, India-China, India-Pakistan and Palestine-Israel with the use of the theory of neoclassical realism, with a focus on leader image. The dissertation makes use the mixed methods approach drawing on data from accredited sources such as the archives, including those of DIRCO, the United Nations, the South African Revenue Service (SARS), the National Conventional Arms Control Committee and the World Trade Organisation. The study’s findings highlight that although the presidents are from the same political party (the African National Congress) there was a change in South Africa's position towards international territorial disputes over the course of observed period. These changes were at times minimal with the position overall remaining the same albeit slightly more radical as seen with the Palestine-Israel conflict from the periods of President Mbeki to President Ramaphosa. However, at times the change in South Africa’s position was more evident with the position changing entirely such as with the cases of India-China over Mandela to the Ramaphosa administration, with South Africa tilting more towards India than China during the Mandela and Ramaphosa presidencies, whereas South Africa’s position tilting more towards China during the Mbeki and Zuma presidencies.