Several Eminent Persons Groups, abbreviated to EPG, have been founded by the Commonwealth of Nations.
The first EPG was established at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1985, held in Nassau. It was tasked to investigate and report on apartheid in South Africa. It reported ahead of the special Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1986, held in London. Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and former Nigerian Head of State Olusegun Obasanjo were appointed as the EPG's Co-Chairmen. [1] The group visited South Africa twice in early 1986, meeting with members of the South African government, as well as Nelson Mandela. During an official visit to South Africa in May 1986 the South African government launched cross-border attacks on supposed ANC bases in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. [2] As a result the EPG's discussions with the government deteriorated and the EPG initiative was curtailed. [1] On the 12 June 1986 the group published their conclusion that there was "no genuine intention on the part of the South African government to dismantle apartheid". [1] They subsequently recommended economic sanctions against South Africa. [1] The EPG's report on publication sold 55 000 copies in its first week, going on to be translated into multiple languages and read worldwide. [3]
The latest EPG was appointed by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2009 at Trinidad and Tobago in November 2009 to report at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2011 on potential reforms to Commonwealth institutions and governance. The group's mandate is to set out recommendations on how to strengthen the Commonwealth and fulfill its potential in the 21st century. [4] The members of this EPG were:
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC). Before that, he was deputy president under Nelson Mandela from 1994 to 1999.
Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican politician and revolutionary. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's independence in 1975 until his death in a plane crash in 1986.
Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha, was a South African politician who served as the country's foreign minister in the last years of the apartheid era, the longest-serving in South African history. Known as a liberal within the party, Botha served to present a friendly, conciliatory face on the regime, while criticised internally. He was a leading contender for the leadership of the National Party upon John Vorster's resignation in 1978, but was ultimately not chosen. Staying in the government after the first non-racial general election in 1994, he served under Mandela as Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs from 1994 to 1996.
The Frontline States (FLS) were a loose coalition of African countries from the 1960s to the early 1990s committed to ending apartheid in South Africa and South West Africa, and white minority rule in Rhodesia to 1980. The FLS included Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The FLS disbanded after Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa in 1994.
Johannes "Joe" Modise was a South African political figure. He helped to found uMkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress, and was its longest serving Commander in Chief, deputised at different points in time by Joe Slovo and Chris Hani. Modise headed MK for a 25-year period, from 1965 to 1990. He served as South Africa's first black Minister of Defence from 1994 to 1999 and led the formation of the post-independence defence force.
Brigitte Sylvia Mabandla is a South African politician, lawyer and former anti-apartheid activist who served in the cabinet of South Africa from 2003 to 2009, including as the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development from 2004 to 2008. She became the South African Ambassador to Sweden in January 2020. A veteran of the African National Congress (ANC), she was an elected member of party's National Executive Committee between 1997 and 2012.
Jeugkrag, also known as Youth for South Africa, was a short-lived South African youth group in the late 1980s. It was surreptitiously funded by the apartheid government's Department of Military Intelligence in an operation known as Project Essay. Led by Marthinus van Schalkwyk it operated exclusively on Afrikaans university campuses and sought to influence the political views of Afrikaans-speaking students.
Foreign relations exist between Australia and Zimbabwe. Both countries have full embassy level diplomatic relations. Australia maintains an embassy in Harare, and Zimbabwe maintains an embassy in Canberra.
The African National Congress (ANC) has been the governing party of the Republic of South Africa since 1994. The ANC was founded on 8 January 1912 in Bloemfontein and is the oldest liberation movement in Africa.
Foreign relations of South Africa during apartheid refers to the foreign relations of South Africa between 1948 and 1994. South Africa introduced apartheid in 1948, as a systematic extension of pre-existing racial discrimination laws. Initially the regime implemented an offensive foreign policy trying to consolidate South African hegemony over Southern Africa. These attempts had clearly failed by the late 1970s. As a result of its racism, occupation of Namibia and foreign interventionism in Angola, the country became increasingly isolated internationally.
The Commonwealth of Australia and the Republic of South Africa formally established diplomatic relations in 1947. Australia is home to one of the largest South African communities abroad with approximately 189,230 South Africans living in the country. Both countries are members of the Cairns Group, Commonwealth of Nations, G20, Indian Ocean Rim Association and the United Nations.
The 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, commonly known as CHOGM 2011, was the 22nd Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations. Held in Perth, Western Australia, between 28 and 30 October 2011 and hosted by the Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The 1985 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was the eighth Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations. It was held in Nassau, The Bahamas, between 16 October 1985 and 22 October 1985, and was hosted by that country's Prime Minister, Sir Lynden Pindling.
Botswana–South Africa relations refers to the historical and current relationship of Botswana and South Africa. Botswana has a high commission in Pretoria, and South Africa has a high commission in Gaborone. Both countries are former British colonies and members of the African Union, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Eswatini–South Africa relations refers to the current and historical relationship between Eswatini and South Africa. South Africa surrounds Eswatini on the north, west and south. The two states share strong historical and cultural ties. Mutual High Commissions were established in Pretoria and Mbabane at the end of the apartheid era in 1994. Eswatini's High Commission in Pretoria is also cross-accredited to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Raid on Gaborone took place on 14 June 1985 when South African Defence Force troops, under the order of General Constand Viljoen, crossed into Botswana violating International Law and attacked South African émigrés living in exile in Gaborone. The raid, the fifth South African attack on a neighbouring country since 1981, killed 12 people including women and children; only five of the victims were actual members of the African National Congress (ANC), at the time the main opposition group against the National Party white supremacist minority regime.
The Dakar Conference was a historic conference between members of the Institute for Democratic Alternatives in South Africa (IDASA) and the African National Congress (ANC). It was held in Dakar, Senegal between 9 and 12 July 1987. The conference discussed topics such as strategies for bringing fundamental change in South Africa, national unity, structures of the government and the future of the economy in a free South Africa. The IDASA delegation from South Africa, participated in the conference in their private capacity and would later be condemned by the South African government for meeting a banned organization. The future indirect result of the conference was South African government talks with Nelson Mandela and his eventual meeting with P. W. Botha in 1989.
Operation Vula was a secret domestic programme of the African National Congress (ANC) during the final years of apartheid in South Africa. Initiated in 1986 at the ANC headquarters in Lusaka and launched in South Africa in 1988, its operatives infiltrated weapons and banned ANC leaders into the country, in order to establish an underground network linking domestic activist structures with the ANC in exile. It was responsible for facilitating the only direct line of communication between ANC headquarters and Nelson Mandela, who at the time was imprisoned and was discussing a negotiated settlement with the government on the ANC's behalf. The operation was disbanded in 1990, after its existence had been publicly revealed and eight of its leaders charged under the Internal Security Act with terrorism and plotting an armed insurrection.