ABSTRACT
In South Africa, where race and class were synonymous, communist class warfare was equated with race warfare. There was no way whites, representing only 12 percent of the population, could win such a battle. When the Berlin Wall fell, the apartheid regime knew that African socialist movements had lost their ideological mentor. Eager to take advantage of the new diplomatic environment, South African foreign policy makers unveiled South Africa's 'New Diplomacy' towards Africa. Neil van Heerden outlined the central tenets of the government's New Diplomacy as this: South Africa is part of Africa, in and through which our future lies. The New Diplomacy was a clear swearing off of old South African practises like the crude Hobbesian tactics of destabilisation, a commitment to internal reform, and a pledge to embrace the use of more instruments of international affairs, such as diplomacy, trade, and economic cooperation.
