Advocating for accountability: civic-state interactions to protect refugees in South Africa

In the 1950s, civic society in South Africa became mobilised against racist laws that penetrated nearly every aspect of civic life. The social justice struggle that eventually displaced white minority rule culminated in democratic elections in 1994. Following this historic transition from authoritarian rule to democracy, other issues came to the fore, including how the government was to receive persons claiming refugee status on the basis of persecution and war. Civic actors in South Africa again became mobilised around these #039;new#039; human rights and social justice issues. At different moments, civic actors became engaged either in working with government to develop a refugee policy, or in confronting the government to fulfil its national and international obligations towards refugees. This book discusses the dynamics of civic-state interactions aimed at the state#039;s obligations to promote, protect and fulfil human rights. Through the lens of refugee rights advocacy in South Africa in the first decade of its post-1994 period of democracy, this book examines and explains the circumstances under which civic-state interactions can lead to structural change, and what these interactions can teach us about the potential of civic society to realise rights in general.

Survival of Private Sector Manufacturing Establishments in Africa: The Role of Productivity and Ownership

This paper analyzes the risk of exit for privately-owned manufacturing establishments in a small African economy. It shows that changes in the structure of ownership following an economic reform have important implications on establishment survival. The risk of exit is lower for establishments that belong to multi-unit firms as compared to single-unit establishments suggesting the presence of information and risk sharing mechanisms within a group. Although female-owned businesses tend to be smaller in size, they have better chances of survival than male-owned establishments. The probability of exit also declines significantly in establishment size and productivity.

Civil society is dé oppositie van Afrika (in Dutch)

In many young democracies political parties are not well organized, this is partly due to a lack of (financial)support. Non-governementel organisations, however, do receive a lot of international support for their advocacy work. This has resulted in NGOs partly taking over the role of political opposition and political parties. In the long run this will curtail democratisation processes in Africa.

Strengthening citizen agency through ICT: an extrapolation for Eastern Africa

Since the late 1990s, the prospect of using ICT (Information Communication Technologies) to improve accountability, transparency, access to information, and monitoring authorities has attracted general optimism. However, early hopes that e-initiatives would be the panacea of all the problems have given way to more modest claims. An aspect that has not received much attention so far is the use of ICT in support to citizen agency; to involve and inform communities and interact with and influence authorities. There are quite a few examples of successful smaller projects in this realm, also in developing countries. But new emerging technologies (e.g. mobile phones) create new momentum for strengthening citizen agency at larger scale. This paper focuses on the how ICT is already being used for this, and where the possibilities for the future lie.

Coton et pauvreté en Afrique de l’Ouest : analyse comparée des conditions de vie des ménages au Mali et au Burkina Faso

Conservation, Neoliberalism and Social Science: a Critical Reflection on the SCB 2007 Annual Meeting, South Africa

The Contemporary Paradox of Long-term Planning for Social-Ecological Change and its Effects on the Discourse-Practice Divide: Evidence from Southern Africa

The Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Project between South Africa and Lesotho aims to bring about positive social-ecological change in and around the Maloti-Drakensberg mountain ecosystem in Southern Africa. To this effect, the project has developed a long-term 20-year planning strategy that has to coordinate all involved actors – and their actions - until 2028. Although it cannot predict the success of this planning strategy for the future, the paper describes and analyses the run-up to the strategy, which itself has lasted well over two decades. By combining critical ‘outside’ research on with practical ‘inside’ experience in the project, the paper argues that governing contemporary social-ecological change is severely challenged by two main fundamental paradoxes: first, the fuelling of short-term dynamics by neoliberal pressures on conservation/development interventions; and second, the increasing gap between discourse and practice. This is then taken as a starting point to empirically illustrate the mutual influence discourse and practice have on each other and how professionals within a large intervention deal with this in the framework of long-term conservation and development planning.

The Impact of AIDS Mortality on the Distribution of Income in Cote d’Ivoire

We build a micro-simulation model able to simulate over a 15 years#039; period the impact of AIDS on the distribution of income in Côte d#039;Ivoire. We focus on the labour supply effects of AIDS-induced mortality. We find that although the size of the economy in terms of total household income is reduced by about 6% after 15 years, average household income per capita, household income inequality and poverty remain almost unchanged. In contrast to an often heard argument, the population dependency ratio is not much modified by the AIDS epidemic. These conclusions do not seem to depend on the degree of heterogeneity and clustering of HIV/AIDS infections over the population.

Food, Feed and Fuels; Consequences of land use change patterns for the livelihoods of marginalised people in the South

Many recent trends threaten to reframe global policies on agriculture. These trends include climate change, rapid urbanization, economic growth, increasing meat in the global diet, and decreasing purchasing power of the poor. Recently, rising oil prices, harvest failures, animal diseases and low levels of stock have colluded with the longer-term trends to push food and feed prices upward, bringing the topic of agricultural policies to the fore. From mid-2007 to early 2008 Hivos partnered with Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) to assess the state of knowledge on competing food, feed and fuels pressures on land use. The goal was to delineate knowledge needs in the field of sustainable economic development with a special focus on the economic position of marginalized groups. This publication showcases the results of this knowledge survey.

Conclusion

Divided into three thematic parts to guide the reader, this important volume documents the development and implementation of refugee policy in South Africa over a 10-year period from 1996 until 2006. In doing so, it addresses issues of detention, gender, children and health as well as welfare policies for refugees. The contributions, all written by academics and practitioners of refugee protection, vividly illustrate the tangible shifts and concerns of a process that is not only aimed at establishing policies and legislation but also practices concerning refugees.

Realising Rights: The Development Of Health And Welfare Policies For Asylum-Seekers And Refugees In South Africa

There is currently no coherent government policy dealing with health and welfare service provision for refugees and asylum-seekers. In addition, there is no central point of contact where asylum-seekers and refugees can turn for information or for service provision. This chapter reports the findings of a UNHCR-commissioned study that begins to provide some background to address these policy and service provision gaps. This chapter and the underlying study specifically focus on the provision of health and welfare services for refugees and asylum-seekers.

Protecting The Invisible: The Status Of Women Refugees In Southern Africa

Refugee demographics show that, of the approximately 20.8 million asylum seekers, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) globally, half are women and girls. This stands in stark contrast to the number of women who apply for and are granted asylum in refugee-receiving countries. South Africa is no exception; statistics from the Department of Home Affairs reveal that women regularly comprise only 20 per cent of applications for asylum,1 and according to the 1998 #039;Gender Policy Statement#039; of the Department of Justice, women constituted only 5 per cent of those who had been formally granted refugee status in South Africa.

Protecting The Most Vulnerable: Using The Existing Policy Framework To Strengthen Protection For Refugee Children

Globally, children are said to form the largest demographic age group amongst refugees. Despite the lack of comprehensive data, it is estimated that children represent half of the world#039;s forcibly displaced population.1 South Africa has been fortunate in recent years not to witness the largescale refugee movements faced in many other countries on the continent. Consequently, the number of child applicants has been rather small, but not insignificant.

Detaining Asylum-Seekers: Perspectives On Proposed Reception Centres For Asylum-Seekers In South Africa

n contrast to most African countries, refugees and asylum-seekers in South Africa enjoy freedom of movement within the country. In many ways, the circumstances of their arrival are very different from those elsewhere in the continent. Apart from the influx of refugees from Mozambique during the civil war in that country during the 1980s, South Africa has never experienced a mass influx of refugees. Many asylum-seekers are what the UNHCR refers to as #039;urban refugees#039;: young men, predominantly from cities and towns in their countries of origin.

Solucão Durável?: Implementing A Durable Solution For Angolan Refugees In South Africa

The debate on durable solutions for refugees has been a contentious one, generating a wide range of differing views on the value of various solutions. The search for durable solutions remains arguably the most formidable challenge in refugee protection, particularly in the case of large refugee populations from areas with long drawn-out conflicts that show little sign of abating. Historically, repatriation has been considered the most favoured solution, notably by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which saw the 1990s as the #039;decade of repatriation#039;. However, efforts to realise this have had mixed success, as Allen and Morsink1 and, more recently, Black and Koser2 have shown in great detail.

Starting With A Clean Slate?: Efforts To Deal With Asylum Application Backlogs In South Africa

The Refugees Act 1998, with corresponding Regulations, did not come into force until early April 2000. Bringing the Act into force presented significant administrative challenges to the Department of Home Affairs (hereinafter the DHA or the Department), the government department designated to administer the refugee status determination regime in South Africa. One of the biggest challenges concerned a backlog of over 27,000 applications that were still awaiting first-instance decisions and a further 4,000 applications awaiting decisions at the appeal level. By the time of the second backlog project, this figure had risen to over 110,000 unprocessed applications. Many asylum-seekers have been waiting for years to receive a determination of their status. This wait has been made all the more frustrating by the onerous task of having to renew permits at regular intervals (as often as once a month), a situation that has also made the system vulnerable to corruption.

Due Process In Asylum Determination In South Africa From A Practitioner#039;s Perspective: Difficulties Encountered In The Interpretation, Application And Administration Of The Refugees Act

This chapter deals with asylum determination procedures before and after the implementation of the new South African Refugees Act. The framework for our analysis is the administrative justice jurisprudence and practice that has developed in South Africa, especially as measured against international practice. Many of the problems encountered before the Act was passed have continued well into the post-Act implementation phase, demonstrating that it is not enough to have adequate legislation in place, if there is neither the will nor the capacity to implement it correctly.

Refugee Status Determination Procedures In South African Law

This chapter critically investigates the South African procedures for determining refugee status that were in force from 1994 until the 1 April 2000 implementation of refugee legislation, as well as the intended changes to these procedures introduced by the Refugees Act 130 of 1998. After a brief historical overview of its development, Part I sets out an understanding of how the administrative system of refugee status determination operated during the period from 1994 to 2000.1 Part II then closely examines this system – which we term the centralised bureaucratic model – and develops an argument for an alternative, decentralised model of refugee determination based on individualised refugee determination hearings. From 1996, the refugee rights community offered a version of this decentralised hearing-based model in advocating for the refugee status determination system that was eventually adopted in the Refugees Act 130 of 1998. Part III then examines the provisions of the Refugees Act relating to refugee status determination procedures, as well as the subsequent implementing regulations. It argues that, properly interpreted in terms of a decentralised hearings-based model, the Act represents an important step forward in South African refugee protection.

Talking A New Talk: A Legislative History Of The Refugees Act 130 Of 1998

This chapter does not write the legislative history of the Refugees Act 130 of 1998 but rather a legislative history. The scope of this chapter extends only to relatively formal developments, such as the drafting of legislation and official policy documents, although we have supplemented these with other background materials as available. We argue that the legislative history of the Refugees Act demonstrates that non-state actors made a major contribution in establishing both the form and the content of legislation on refugee protection separate from migration policy in South Africa. Through this process as well as its result (the first South African Parliamentary statute), a new subject was inserted into the South African policy arena: refugee protection.

Regional Integration, Protection And Migration Policy Challenges In Southern Africa

Honouring South Africa#039;s commitments to promoting the rights and prosperity of all its residents – citizens, immigrants, refugees and asylumseekers – requires a regime of laws and practices that ensures that the presence of non-nationals does not foster corruption, coercion and illegality by citizens, private security firms and state agents. Despite South Africa#039;s commitments to ensuring that its asylum system promotes human rights, administrative rationality and the rule of law, considerable obstacles remain to achieving this end.

International And National Responses To The Challenges Of Mass Forced Displacement

People have been migrating in large numbers since time immemorial, for reasons of personal and family advancement, as elements in state plans to expand and develop and to avoid any number of disasters, natural and man-made. South Africa has had the full spectrum of the migration and displacement experience, moving from refugee-source to refugee-receiving country, and meeting all the complexity of mixed flows on the way. While refugee movements and situations have long attracted attention, at least in certain of their phases, migration in its #039;ordinary#039; sense is only now beginning to feature on the international agenda, even if the principal focus is on the issues of concern to the developed world, such as irregular and clandestine migration and trafficking in people. Despite the international dimension, an international migration regime is still lacking. There is no multilateral convention and no truly international organisation with a comprehensive mandate, while state practice varies and a burgeoning individual rights dimension confronts traditional sovereign powers, actual or perceived, with distinctly uneven results.

Buzzing too far? The ideological echo of global governance concepts on the local level: the case of the Mafungautsi Forest in Zimbabwe

This article critically examines the effects of global development buzzwords on the local level. Familiar examples are: empowerment, participation, capacity building, good governance and sustainable development. The article presents the findings of a highly exceptional but therefore very suitable case: a community-based forestry project in the Mafungautsi State Forest in Zimbabwe. This project used the same buzzwords throughout its two phases from 1994 to 1999 and from 1999 to 2003, but with remarkably different outcomes per phase. Only when the first donor left in 1999, owing to Zimbabwe becoming an international pariah, was there space for another donor to reconceptualise the same buzzwords on different premises, leading to more positive outcomes. The article concludes that, although rare in today#039;s donor driven target culture, locally appropriate and critical operationalisation of buzzwords is possible even if, or perhaps when, it takes place under unthinkable circumstances.

Competitive Selection and Technological Capabilities in Ethiopian Manufacturing

The paper examines the entry, survival and exit patterns of Ethiopian manufacturing firms using a census based panel data for the period 1996 to 2002. The evidence reveals an underlying market selection mechanism that reallocates resources toward more efficient producers and forces inefficient firms to close down. This process also contributes to aggregate productivity growth although the manufacturing sector continued to loose productivity due to intra-firm productivity decline. The paper goes further to explore the accumulation of technological capabilities and their role for firm level productivity growth. Data from a sample survey shows a very sparse incidence of innovative activities in Ethiopian manufacturing. Nonetheless, firms that engage in building technical capabilities exhibit higher level of productivity after controlling for other firm characteristics. The paper concludes that while markets contribute to aggregate productivity growth by exerting competitive selection, long-term industrial competitiveness in developing countries could be stifled because of inadequate technological learning.

Advocating accountability: the forming of a refugee rights discourse in South Africa

This paper examines the roles and impact of civic initiatives in forming a refugee rights discourse and ushering in refugee policy in South Africa in compliance with its international obligations. Some inputs to this process have sought to ‘reformulate’ the law to fit political realities, while recent commentaries of the process have been limited to moralistic arguments supported by little more than legal rhetoric. Both miss the broader picture and fail to acknowledge the explicit role of civic society both in helping to frame policy and urging its proper implementation. Civic initiatives representing various constituencies in South Africa and abroad have played a central role in forming obligations, claiming rights and even determining state practice. South Africa presents an intriguing case study in testing the validity and practicability of civic society (non-State) efforts in advocating government’s accountability in the protection of refugees, particularly in the making of the Refugees Act 1998.

Linking Neoprotectionism and Environmental Governance: On the Rapidly Increasing Tensions between Actors in the Environment-Development Nexus

There are rapidly increasing tensions between actors engaged in the governance of environment and natural resources in Africa. This becomes clear when reviewing current trends in the conservation-development debate and combining these insights with trends in environmental governance, most especially the commodification of ‘nature’ under pressures of neoliberalism. Our argument starts by showing how the conservation-development debate has become polarised due to increasing criticism of community-based approaches to nature conservation and how these unfold in terms of value and scale. We argue that the strong sense of urgency involved in this neoprotectionist turn amongst conservation practitioners has been reciprocated by an equally strong reply from community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) advocates, thereby further straining the choices that must be made with respect to conservation practice. Through a discussion of the current neoliberal turn in environmental governance, we suggest that the potential of actors to promote divergent and ambiguous values in policy and practice across scale has increased over the past decade and will continue to do so. This, in turn, may lead to environmental governance that favours the ‘sustained’ polarisation of actors’ priorities in research and policy concerning

Whims of the Winds of Time? Emerging Trends in Biodiversity Conservation and Protected Area Management

This article reviews narratives and trends in biodiversity conservation and protected area (PA) management and examines contestations within and among them in the light of developments within the global political economy. Its argument starts with the assumption that trends in biodiversity conservation and PA management are, in large part, determined by global political and economic developments. The global political economy determines how both policy issues inherent to the conservation and development debate need to continuously be re-operationalised in order to remain politically acceptable. This argument is used to identify three recent trends in conservation, which we have termed ‘neoliberal conservation’, ‘bioregional conservation’ and ‘hijacked conservation’. By illustrating these trends with empirical data from eastern and southern Africa, we aim to enhance the understanding and appreciation of macrosocial, economic and political dynamics— both constraints and opportunities—that impinge on conservation and development. In turn, this understanding could contribute to a better ‘manoeuvrability’ for the management and success of more technical initiatives that aim to improve conservation of biodiversity and PA management.

Introduction: The Politics of Engagement between Biodiversity Conservation and the Social Sciences

In scientific endeavour related to biodiversity conservation, the perspectives of the natural sciences have long been dominant. During the last several decades, however, social science research has steadily gained momentum. The major achievement of the social sciences has been to investigate and emphasise the ‘human side’ of biodiversity conservation, ranging from local issues around social exclusion from protected areas and dependency of ‘local people’ on natural resources to more abstract issues of environmental governance and political ecology. But social science research is itself also a social process and its practices, assumptions and outcomes therefore deserve continuous critical reflection. The paper contends that when it comes to the engagement of the social sciences and biodiversity conservation the concept of ‘politics’ has tended to have negative connotations. However, we argue, like anything social, politics should not automatically be seen as negative. This acceptance could considerably improve relations between different actors and we therefore urge all those involved in the debate, especially social scientists, to take two crucial steps: first, the creation and acceptance of practical spaces for critical political engagement and second, the concomitant need for actors to scrutinise and reflect more consciously on their politics of engagement.

Industrial Competitiveness and Firm Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa. A Firm-Level Analysis with a Focus on Ethiopian Manufacturing

Firm Heterogeneity and Market Selection in Sub-Saharan Africa: Does It Spur Industrial Progress?

This article investigates the processes of market selection and industry dynamics in a sub‐Saharan Africa context. Using census‐based longitudinal data, it examines the distribution of productivity within an industry to determine whether patterns of firm entry, exit, and survival are driven by underlying efficiency differences. It also estimates the contributions to industry‐level productivity growth of producer turnover and the reallocation of resources from less efficient producers to more efficient ones. The article shows that markets in sub‐Saharan Africa, as represented by Ethiopia, are at least as strong as those in other regions in selecting efficient firms. Tolerance of inefficient firms also declines with the degree of exposure to international competition. While reallocation of resources played a positive and significant role for industry‐level productivity growth, it only managed to offset the declining trend in intrafirm productivity. The article concludes that although markets have played the expected disciplinary role, long‐term industrial growth requires more than functional markets, particularly in addressing firm‐level innovation.

Municipal commonage and implications for land reform: A profile of commonage users in Philippolis, Free State, South Africa

This paper reports on a survey of municipal commonage users, which was undertaken in Philippolis in the southern Free State, in May 2005. The survey showed that a significant number of commonage users are committed to their farming enterprises, as shown by five proxy indicators: Their readiness to plough their income into their farming enterprises; their sale of livestock; their desire for more land, and their willingness to pay rental to secure such land; their desire to farm on their own; and their desire to own their own land. The paper reflects on the significance of commonage in the context of the South African government’s land reform policy, and argues that commonage can transcend survivalist or subsistence production, and can be used as a “stepping stone” for emergent farmers to access their own land parcels. Finally, the paper argues that, if commonage is to become a key part in a “step-up” strategy of land reform, then appropriately sized land parcels should be made available for commonage users, to enable them to “exit” from commonage use and invest in smallholdings or small farms.

Capital adjustment patterns and uncertainty in African manufacturing

Judging by the provisions of its investment code and the apparent stability of the macro-economy, Ethiopia seems to offer a favourable investment climate for the private sector. However, Ethiopian manufacturing has experienced a declining rate of investment since the mid 1990s. Like other Sub-Saharan African countries, more than half of manufacturing firms in Ethiopia have zero investment episodes; episodes that have become more persistent over time. This contrasts badly with high average profit rates in African manufacturing relative to average profit rates in OECD countries. Rather than being smooth and continuous, firm level investment in Africa is less frequent and lumpy. While this pattern of capital adjustment is not unique to Africa, the discontinuity and lumpiness is starker than what is observed in developed countries. The evidence in this paper suggests that such discontinuity and the lacklustre investment performance have more to do with uncertainty and irreversibility. The paper shows that uncertainty, proxied by the volatility of profits, undermines mainly the likelihood rather than the rate of investment. However, the possibility to reverse investment decisions, captured by the scope of the second hand market for machinery, significantly increases the rate of investment.

Land and resources in a transfrontier setting: The case of the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Project

Amongst the many initiatives in legislative and policy change affecting land and common property resource management in southern Africa today, transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) seem particularly prominent because of their massive scale, huge political and donor support and the many (rural) livelihoods they are likely to affect. In general, TFCAs are large conservation and development areas across international borders that involve different land-use options such as biodiversity and cultural heritage conservation, range management and community-based natural resource management areas. These different land-use options also make for different legal and practical ownership arrangements in one TFCA, such as private, state-owned or common property management. This policy brief examines issues of legislative and policy change affecting land management and common property resource management brought forth by one specific TFCA: the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Area between Lesotho and South Africa.

Firm heterogeneity and market selection in Sub-Saharan Africa : does it spur industrial progress?

This article investigates the processes of market selection and industry dynamics in a sub‐Saharan Africa context. Using census‐based longitudinal data, it examines the distribution of productivity within an industry to determine whether patterns of firm entry, exit, and survival are driven by underlying efficiency differences. It also estimates the contributions to industry‐level productivity growth of producer turnover and the reallocation of resources from less efficient producers to more efficient ones. The article shows that markets in sub‐Saharan Africa, as represented by Ethiopia, are at least as strong as those in other regions in selecting efficient firms. Tolerance of inefficient firms also declines with the degree of exposure to international competition. While reallocation of resources played a positive and significant role for industry‐level productivity growth, it only managed to offset the declining trend in intrafirm productivity. The article concludes that although markets have played the expected disciplinary role, long‐term industrial growth requires more than functional markets, particularly in addressing firm‐level innovation.

Peace parks in Southern Africa: bringers of an African Renaissance?

The pursuit of an African Renaissance has become an important aspect of regional cooperation between South Africa and its neighbours. Transfrontier conservation areas, or ‘Peace Parks’ as they are popularly called, have been identified as key instruments to promote the African Renaissance dream, and are increasingly advocated and justified on this basis. By fostering joint conservation (and tourism) development in Southern Africa#039;s marginalised border regions, Peace Parks are claimed to further international peace, regional cooperation and poverty reduction, and thus serve basic ideals of the African Renaissance. This article critically explores this assumption. Using the joint South African-Mozambican-Zimbabwean Great Limpopo Park as a case study, it argues that in reality the creation of Peace Parks hardly stimulates and possibly even undermines the realisation of the African Renaissance ideals of regional cooperation, emancipation, cultural reaffirmation, sustainable economic development and democratisation. So far, their achievement has been severely hindered by domination of national interests, insufficient community consultation, and sensitive border issues such as the illegal flows of goods and migrants between South Africa and neighbouring countries. Furthermore, exacerbation of inter-state differences induced by power imbalances in the region, and harmonisation of land use and legal systems across boundaries, are increasingly becoming sources of conflict and controversy. Some of these problems are so severe, we conclude, that they might eventually even undermine support for African Renaissance as a whole. Utmost care is thus required to optimally use the chances that Peace Parks do offer in furthering an African Renaissance.

Conjunctions of Governance: The State and the Conservation-development Nexus in Southern Africa

From the fortress conservation paradigm in the 1960s and 1970s to the community based conservation paradigm of the 1980s and 1990s, the ideological linkage of people and conservation of natural resources in Africa seemed to have progressed towards local ownership and local management. At present, however, it looks as though the limits of community ownership over natural resources have been reached. According to powerful actors on the conservation scene, local people in Africa have not been able to effectively conserve their wildlife and biodiversity and thus – in their view - a more enforcing style of conservation, separated from local people, is needed again. Although this trend is still in its infancy, it is promoted with rigour and backed by substantial financial means. In this paper, we use the changing discourse in the environment-development nexus as a starting point to examine issues of governance and power over the conjunction of natural resources management and development in Southern Africa, with a special focus on the role of the state. By drawing on a case study whereby different states jointly try to manage the conservation-development nexus, here the case of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, we are able to better situate the role of the Southern African state within this nexus. We conclude that the way states are trying to govern transfrontier parks is not in par with the way processes of governance unfold themselves nowadays under the influence of the forces of globalisation and localisation. If Southern African states are to retain any control over the direction that the conservation-development nexus in Southern Africa will take in practice, they need to adapt to the current international governance climate, and they need to adapt fast. With Southern Africa’s history of enormous social disadvantages in relation to conservation, states just cannot afford to be bypassed by a resurgence of that same history.

Mali: Rewriting the Mining Code or Redefining the Role of the State?

Crossing Borders: A comparison of US and South African Border Control Policies

The Status ‘Regularisation’ Programme for Former Mozambican Refugees in South Africa

This paper intends to describe both the formulation and implementation of a programme to ‘regularise’ the legal residence status of a large group of former Mozambican refugees in South Africa and present a brief critique (from a mainly legal perspective) on the implementation of the regularisation programme itself.

Southern African Migration Project: Evaluating Refugee Protection in South Africa

Private investment and public policy in sub-Saharan Africa : an empirical analysis

Migration, Refugees, and Racism in South Africa

The paper looks at South Africa’s complex history and policies of racism, social separation and control and the impact that this has had on the nature of migration and refugee policy. The paper argues that this legacy has resulted in policy and implementation that is highly racialized, coupled with a society expressing growing levels of xenophobia. Some causes and manifestations of xenophobia in South Africa are explored. It further examines how actions of police and civil servants can mirror the sentiments of the general public, further disadvantaging refugees and migrants. The outcomes of the WCAR are discussed with acknowledgment of the positive gains made for refugees and asylum seekers. The implications for implementation are debated in light of the attacks on the USA. In conclusion, a number of recommendations are made including the need for ongoing public awareness strategies, the value of the WCAR Declarations as lobbying tools, a pragmatic and democratic policy process and the need to highlight development concerns in approaches to address these issues.

No Easy Walk: Advancing Refugee Protection in South Africa

South Africa only began accepting individual applications for political asylum in 1994. A policy designed to recognize former Mozambican refugees for the purposes of a repatriation program became the (awkward) basis of the asylum procedure up until April 2000. Criticized by some, a lively discussion raising often-contradictory views began in 1996, leading to a policy reform process culminating in the Refugees Act in December 1998. The Act only came into force at the beginning of April 2000. This article analyzes the process of policy development in South Africa, focusing on practical and theoretical challenges facing the government in the implementation of the new Act. Special attention is given to temporary protection, the proposed containment of applicants in reception centers, the arbitrary manner in which asylum is currently determined, and inconsistencies between the interfacing of the Refugees Act and the proposed immigration legislation. The paper concludes by asserting that the new legislation can be effective, but only if the government builds capacity, and if the procedure allows a fair opportunity for asylum applicants to be granted a credible hearing.

‘Who Determines Refugee Policy? Promoting The Right of Asylum in South Africa’