Proceedings of The 7th World Conference on Social Sciences
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Domestic challenges in South Africa affecting regional integration
Hlengiwe Rejoyce Phetha
ABSTRACT:
South Africa has played a significant role in contributing towards global integration in the backdrop of the adoption of the agenda 2030 and the sustainable development goals in Pari 2019 and Addis Ababa action agenda. The move has demonstrated the need to focus on collective and coordinated responses in terms of policy to sustain global recovery. Cognisant of the importance of trade in driving global economic growth and promoting the standards of living of people. South Africa has sought to strengthen SADC integration to fight poverty and develop new ideas on technology and markets. However, regional integration alone cannot solve persistent inequality, vulnerabilities of financial markets and power imbalances. Thus, citizens and taxpayers continue to see the gap between the haves and the have not widened, fuelling discontent, mistrust in government and dissatisfaction with globalization in all its forms. General well-being is in severe danger from the immediate effects of the virus and the longer-term impact of hunger due to a growing economic crisis. There is a political struggle for political power playing out among factions in the ruling party. These tensions flared up in the wake of President Jacob Zuma’s imprisonment in July 2021, leading to widespread unrest and destruction in the country. In his 6th state of the Nation address in 2022, President Cyril Ramaphosa indicated that unemployment, crime, and corruption were the most important issues facing the country, over and above, housing and water. As a result, there has been a growing mistrust between the citizens and the government. Whilst, the President is aware of the challenges facing the country and the prospective policy intervention, the government faces a mammoth task in dealing with domestic challenges in the face of the need for regional integration.
keywords: South Africa, challenges, domestic, regional integration, SADC