Abstract:
South Africa adopted a human security orientation at the start of its
democratic epoch in 1994, but its operationalisation by the South
African National Defence Force (SANDF) proved difficult to implement.
Human security is an approach to security which prioritises the protection
of the people over security of the state. One of its central tenets
is that security is best achieved through development as opposed to
arms. Against this backdrop, the principal objective of this article is to
critically analyse and understand South Africa's official human security
orientation. Two indicators, the functions performed by the SANDF as
well as South Africa's strategic defence posture, were assessed to
achieve the objective. The securitisation model associated with Barry
Buzan and Ole Wæver was used as a theoretical framework to understand
South Africa's official conception and utilisation of human security.
It was found that the SANDF's operational functioning was compromised
by having to perform its primary responsibilities along with
secondary developmental tasks demanded by the broad mandate of human security. Furthermore, while South Africa lexically took human
security and state security to be equally important, in practice the
SANDF tended to prioritise state security ahead of human security both
at home and abroad. Some analysts detected lack of strategic coherence
in South Africa's security engagements in Africa while ignoring
extensive efforts of the SANDF to bring peace, and not destabilisation,
on the continent as part of the strategic defence posture. Ultimately, this
article argues that the competency with which the SANDF ensures state security must be cascaded down to the human level by taking up
more secondary functions with some provisos. Alignment of defence
policy and adequate resources as well as the involvement of the people
will be indispensable towards realisation of true human security.
