Austria’s development policy in South Africa has, up to now, followed very different patterns. In a first period, development projects inside South Africa were not implemented for political reasons; instead of that the government supported – in a limited way – humanitarian projects of the United Nations for South Africa. as well as certain projects submitted by the African National Congress. After that period, a pro-South African lobby succeeded in pushing through one pilot project (related to small business development) aiming at subverting Austria ’s limited sanctions policy against racist South Africa. Finally, and given the dramatic changes in South African policy since 1989, a number of projects were started most of them drafted in the context of non-racism and tackling the social and educational heritage of Apartheid. This article tries to assess these various projects and proposes a more coherent developmental approach in cooperation with a strong South African partner organisation, the Kagiso Trust.
