More Democracy, More Security? Regionalism and Political [In]Security in East and Southern Africa

ABSTRACT

This article assesses African Union (AU) normative frameworks and practicalities of interlocking democracy and security in specific African sub-regions. Following an Africa-focused brief, historicised and comprehensible conceptualisation of evolving AU democracy and security paradigms, the article qualitatively analyzes the EAC and SADC’s democracy and security enterprises in member states whose protracted and recurring political crises culminated in regional mediation. Specifically, the EAC’s role in Burundi and SADC’s role in Lesotho and Zimbabwe provide fertile areas to assess collective approaches to the nexus of democracy and security in East and Southern Africa. The examination finds that core principles of the developing AU pan-African democracy and peace norms, indeed, provide a balanced platform for state, human and regime security promotive of positive peace in Africa’s sub-regions. However, considerable variations exist in the extent and implementation of the complementary standards by Africa’s regional blocs to advance democracy and security in troubled member states.

KEYWORDS:

• Democracy
• security
• Burundi
• Lesotho
• Zimbabwe

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Khadiagala (2018) provides an instructive comparative analysis but is already five year’s old.

2 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes civil and political rights, like the right to life, liberty, free speech and privacy. It also includes economic, social and cultural rights, like the right to social security, health and education.

3 Structural violence includes embedded socio-economic and political hierarchies that impose conditions, which place people at high risk for negative consequences, such as poverty, unemployment, inequality, malnutrition, crime and disease.

4 The eight RECs recognised by the AU are the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), COMESA, Community of Sahel–Saharan States (CEN–SAD), EAC, Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and SADC.

5 EAC Member States are Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

6 SADC’s sixteen member countries are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Union of Comoros, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

7 Among other commitments, the benchmarks enjoin SADC member states to establish impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable national EMBs; safeguard the human rights and civil liberties of all citizens, including freedoms of movement, assembly, association and expression, and the right of all stakeholders to campaign and have access to the state media during electoral processes among many other functions.

8 ZANU-PF lost control of the House of Assembly for the first time since independence in April 1980 and only guaranteed its majority in the Senate through presidential appointees.

9 Zimbabwe’s constitutional amendments permitted expropriation of agricultural land for resettlement purposes without compensation and possible recourse to courts of law.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mopeli L. Moshoeshoe

Mopeli L. Moshoeshoe is a faculty member in the Department of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. His research and teaching areas are in International Political Economy, Development Issues and Regionalism, including North-South Relations. He also teaches Foreign Policy studies; in particular, South Africa's Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy Analysis and Africa's International Relations.

Gwinyayi A. Dzinesa

Gwinyayi A. Dzinesa is a faculty member of Africa University, Zimbabwe and a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation, University of Johannesburg. He has extensive experience delivering strategic publications on topics, including democracy, elections and security; DDR; peacebuilding and regional integration in Africa.