Nelson Mandela (left) and Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda wave to the crowd as they arrive at a ANC mass rally held at the Independent Stadium in Lusaka on March 03, 1990. Zambia was the seat of the exiled ANC. To express gratitude for African countries’ unwavering support during the anti-Apartheid struggle, South Africa left no stone unturned in appeasing its fellow African countries, says the writer.
Dr. Sizo Nkala
Since the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa has painstakingly built a reputation as a model continental citizen in Africa.
In a seminal article he published in 1993, just a few months before he became the first president of a democratic South Africa, Nelson Mandela declared that “South Africa cannot escape its African destiny”.
In part to atone for the sins of the apartheid regime, which wreaked untold havoc in neighbouring countries housing anti-Apartheid forces and in part to express gratitude for African countries’ unwavering support during the anti-Apartheid struggle, post-Apartheid South Africa left no stone unturned in appeasing its fellow African countries.
