Abstract
M.A. (Politics)
This study was concerned with the relations of South Africa and international
actors in the Southern African region.
It was noticed that there was a shortage of quantitative studies,
especially on international behaviour. in South Africa.
For this reason a quantitative method, events-analysis, was used. The
method quantifies actions of states over a period of time; the period
January 1982 to December 1982 was used in the present study.
Relations in Southern Africa were researched through hypotheses concerning
reciprocal relations. issues and conflictive or co-operative
behaviour. The actors studied include states such as Angola, Mozambique,
Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. Non-state actors
such as Swapo, the ANC, Unita and the PAC were also taken into
consideration.
It was found that the relations between South Africa and international
actors in Southern Africa were reciprocal. Conflictive actions evoked
conflictive reactions whereas co-operative actions evoked co-operative
reactions. It was of interest that relations were mostly issue-orientated.
The issues studied were security, economic, territorial and political.
S.W.A./Namibia was also included as an issue.
Security issues totally dominated relations in Southern Africa.
Actions concerning security issues were found to be mostly conflictive
and largely connected to the actor's attitude towards the ANC.
Relations between South Africa and states such as Mozambique and
Lesotho were very conflictive. These two states were outspoken
supporters of the ANC. Quite the reverse applied to states such as
Swaziland and Botswana. Neither of them supports the ANC materially and
relations with South Africa were therefore more co-operative.