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The eight study groups will examine key issues around South Africa and Africa and its interaction with the wider world.

SCHEDULE:

Wednesday September 24,  2007: The politics of transcendence and transition

How South Africa negotiated its way from apartheid and autocracy and established a democratic, non-racial order

Study group leader: Tony Leon

A brief survey of South Africa's political and constitutional history under the segregationist and apartheid governments of the 20th Century; the impulses and realities which led to President FW de Klerk's decision to launch the era of negotiations' politics. How the African National Congress trumped their adversaries and an eye-witness account of South Africa's roller-coaster ride to a democratic settlement and its salience after 13 years.

An overview will be provided of my personal and political journey during South Africa's years of travail and transition

Wednesday October 3, 2007: Africa's developmental challenge

From predatory to accountable government : The overall outlook with specific focus on the case of Darfur

Study group leaders:
Professor Samantha Power (Invited)
Professor Eric Reeves
Robert Guest

President Mbeki's new era "African Renaissance" envisages a continent of burgeoning democracy, good governance and growing commerce. Afro-sceptics such as the economist's Robert Guest see evidence of too many "vampire states", where hapless citizens live under predatory and incompetent governments, sometimes in terror of their own lives. Half of African population exists today on less than $US1a day and the continent's entire economic output is less than a country like Mexico's. Aids, poverty, war and famine continue to identify parts of the continent with the worst excesses of failed states. On the other hand growth rates in African are ticking upward and new continental institutions are being established to give meaning to an African "renaissance." Is there a synthesis between these two seeming incompatibles?

Sudan has the scene of two separate, but related civil wars. The conflict in the west in Darfur is again a modern African tragedy. It has caused the displacement of over 2 million people and the deaths of "no fewer" than 200 000 in what the United States and some human rights groups describe as a state-assisted genocide. Recently the United Nations has agreed to deploy a 26 000-strong peacekeeping force. But is there a peace to police and is it a case of "too little, too late."

The study group will examine the specifics of the Darfur conflict and the wider context of Africa's evolving outlook and orientation. Is it moving in a democratic or authoritarian direction?

Prof. Eric Reeves and Prof. Samantha Power have written widely about and are knowledgeable experts on Darfur
Robert Guest, the Editor of the American Economist Magazine, has written and acclaimed book on modern Africa, 'The Shackled Continent'.

Wednesday October 10 ,  2007: How can South Africa and Africa boost their growth rates and encourage foreign direct investment?

Study group leader: Professor Ricardo Hausmann

South Africa's economy has shown positive signs of growth, while government economic policy has encouraged macro-economic stability and fiscal prudence. Yet huge challenges remain: unemployment officially is at 28% and 10% of the population exist on less than $US1 per day. Meanwhile foreign direct investment (FDI) a key driver of future growth remains very modest at $6.4bn in 2005, constituting only 0.7% of world FDI inflows and 1.9% of developing countries FDI inflows. The country is also battling a skills' crisis and the vagaries of currency volatility which is aggravated by its negative balance of payments' position.

In 2006 the South African government launched its Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA). It invited an international panel of economists to advise it, at the highest level, on strategies to boost the rate of domestic GDP growth to a sustainable 6% per annum, a target never yet achieved. On its fourth visit it presented its findings to the Cabinet. Professor Ricardo Hausmann, Director and Professor of the Practise of Economic Development at Harvard's Centre for International Development, led the panel. The study group will have direct access to his insights.

In addition, it will traverse the apparent improvement in Africa's economic condition, the historic negativity of which led to it being dubbed the "hopeless continent." But will Africa's boost - due in part to a global hunger for oil, minerals and other commodities, make a difference to improving the lives of its impoverished citizenry and help build ladders out of poverty?

Ricardo Hausmann, Director and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Harvard Center for International Development, led the international panel of economists advising the SA Government on its accelerated and shared growth initiative.

Wednesday October 17,  2007: The Implosion of Zimbabwe

Study group leaders: Peter Godwin
Professor David Moore
Andrew Meldrum

When it achieved independence in 1980, Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe was perceived as a model of non-racial reconciliation and democracy - one of Africa's most promising post-colonial states. Its agricultural economy was Africa's breadbasket. Since 2000, however, it has rapidly imploded under the increasingly tyrannous regime of President Mugabe. Today its democracy is imperilled and its economy has shrunk by 30% over the past 6 years with inflation exceeding 10 000% - one of the highest recorded in modern economic history and an unemployment rate of 80%. Its neighbouring states, particularly South Africa, have engaged in a process of 'quiet diplomacy' toward their neighbour. We examine how early promise gave way to a failed state.

Acclaimed Zimbabwean born novelist (Author of "When a crocodile eats the sun"), Andrew Meldrum, and Southern African academic Professor David Moore provide expert analysis and opinion and prognosticate the future.

Wednesday October 24,  2007: South Africa's Foreign Policy : and how Africa views the West and the USA

Study group leader: Ambassador Welile Nhlapo

In 1993 President Nelson Mandela, on the eve of assuming power stated "human rights will be the light that guides our foreign affairs." On the one hand the current South African government and its African partners have sought to solidify the twin ideals of economic growth and good governance along lines congenial to both the spirit of the "African Renaissance" and the international community. On the other hand, a contrary strain has emerged: 'Solidarity' with apparently despotic regimes which appear to undermine the initial comforting 'human rights as first principle' approach. What is South Africa - and Africa's global strategy in a fast-changing and volatile new world order? We hear the official view from South Africa's newly-arrived Ambassador to the United States, Amb. Welile Nhlapo.

Wednesday October 31,  2007: How America Views Africa: Study group leader: Former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Walter H Kansteiner III

Throughout the 20th Century American interest in Africa has waxed and waned, depending on the strategic objectives of various administrations. Africa, during the Cold War was often a site for proxy struggles and conflicts between the two contending superpowers. The politics of containment ended and with it, initially apparently, the interest of the United States. However, in the context of growing energy needs and global insecurity, Africa today is increasingly important to US interests and occupies a high priority on the American agenda. Increasingly under the Bush administration six goals have been adopted to guide policy toward Africa:

1. Increase democracy, good governance and respect for the rule of law.
2. Expand United States trade and investment with Africa to spur economic development in Africa. 
3. Conserve Africa's environment.
4. Combat the spread of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases
5. Reinforce African support in the global war on terrorism.
6. Promote regional stability by ending Africa's wars.

Walter H Kansteiner III was George W Bush's first Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and as such responsible for US foreign policy in Africa. Today he is a founding principal of the Scowcroft Group and has transferred from policy leadership and development to economic analysis and entrepreneurship. He is uniquely placed to offer an assessment of US policy in theory and practise.

Wednesday November 7, 2007 Looking Back and Looking Forward

Study group leader: Former President FW de Klerk

President FW de Klerk was the last white President of South Africa (1989-1994), and together with Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace (1993) for his leadership role in South Africa's transition to democracy. He served as Executive Deputy President under Mandela (1994-1996) at the onset of the country's new order. He is today Head of the FW de Klerk Foundation which is involved in giving meaning and content to Africa's new Constitution and playing a mediating role in other conflict areas and states in transition and across the world.

Wednesday November 14, 2007: The great paradox : Can South Africa transcend the politics of race and inequality?

Study group leader: Tony Leon

South Africa's inequalities are vast. It measures approximately 0.6 on the GINI coefficient making it one of the most unequal countries in the world yet it possesses Africa's most significant and sophisticated economy. It has one of the most liberal constitutions in the world, yet has, per capita, the world's highest rates of HIV/AIDS infection, its violent crime rates are staggering and elements of authoritarianism are present in its daily and institutional politics.

Although all political parties proclaim a non-racial outlook, most elections can be reduced to a form of ethnic head-counting. It's a country of baffling paradoxes - Africa's best and brightest hope, yet governed by a party with an essentially Jacobin outlook. Although much economic and social progress has been made and increased services delivered, it has moved downward on world ratings for human development. The government has committed itself to the concept of a developmental state but, in some areas, the state is dysfunctional.

Can these contradictory impulses be synthesised and sustained - or will South Africa's exceptionalism fade and populist forces seize the day when President Mbeki's successor is elected in December?

These existential questions go to the heart of whether or not South Africa will lead the way to Africa's rebirth as a continent at peace with itself and the wider world. The study group will unpack some of these key issues and Tony Leon will provide personal observations from the three democratic elections where he led the party which today is South Africa's Official Opposition.