South Africa and South Sudan: Lessons for post-conflict development and peacebuilding partnerships

This brief contends that South Africa should be charting a new way forward for development assistance in Africa.

This policy brief analyses South Africa’s post-conflict development and peacebuilding in South Sudan. South Africa has fraternal relations with South Sudan stemming from the ties of the liberation struggles of the African National Congress (ANC) and the South Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M). Following the signing of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, South Africa has also been instrumental in providing development and mediation assistance to South Sudan. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, as chair of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), plays a key mediating role between Sudan and South Sudan. Recently, the ANC committed itself to ‘deepening and broadening its relationship with the SPLM’ and the South African government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for closer co-operation with the Government of South Sudan (GOSS).

South Africa’s long history with South Sudan provides it with potential access for deeper engagement and the ability to shape the nature of development there. What type of post-conflict development and peacebuilding activities has South Africa engaged in? What, if any, is the overall thrust guiding South Africa’s programming? What lessons can we learn from South Africa’s interventions in South Sudan? This brief contends that South Africa should be charting a new way forward for development assistance in Africa; one that is aligned with, and facilitates, the overarching post-conflict development and peacebuilding programmes in the AU’s Agenda 2063 as well as the AU’s Post-conflict Reconstruction and Development (PCRD) and Security Sector Reform (SSR) frameworks.

About the authors

Cheryl Hendricks is a professor in the Politics Department at the University of Johannesburg. She is also the lead of the ISS project ‘Enhancing South Africa’s Postconflict Development and Peacebuilding Engagement in Africa’.

Amanda Lucey is a researcher in the Conflict Management and Peacebuilding division at ISS Pretoria. The authors would like to thank N Masiko and T Tjemolane for compiling the background material for this policy brief.