Rejoining the high table: South Africa and the UN Security Council

This report analyzes South Africa's election as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for the 2019–2020 term. It examines the current geopolitical dynamics of the Council, the expectations placed on South Africa as a regional power, and provides strategic recommendations for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) to maximize the country's international visibility and influence.

• South Africa was elected on 8 June 2018 to serve as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2019–2020 period, replacing Ethiopia.
• The UN Security Council is characterized by a renewed divide among its five permanent members (P5), specifically a lack of consensus between the P3 (United States, United Kingdom, and France) and Russia and China.
• While African issues constitute the majority of the UNSC agenda—with 27 of 53 country or regional issues located in Africa—they have historically not been central to the Council's primary political decision-making.
• South Africa is expected to provide leadership for the A3 (the three African members of the Council) to ensure coherence and common positions, as it is viewed as one of the continent's leading powers.
• There is significant expectation for South Africa to take a leadership role in addressing specific African crises, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Sudan.
• South Africa has the potential to lead on the thematic issue of Women, Peace and Security, filling a gap left by Sweden at the end of 2018 due to its history of deploying women peacekeepers and high proportion of women in political positions.
• A critical priority for South Africa is strengthening the operational and strategic relationship between the UN and the African Union (AU), specifically regarding the funding of AU peace support operations.
• South Africa's peacekeeping capacity has faced challenges due to budget reductions in the South African National Defence Force; uniformed personnel in missions dropped to 1,213 by April 2018.
• To be successful, South Africa must avoid the common E10 mistake of focusing too heavily on thematic areas at the expense of country-specific crises, as non-permanent members are generally judged on their impact on specific conflicts.
• The report recommends that South Africa increase the staffing and expertise of its permanent mission in New York and enhance the capacity of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) in Pretoria to support the mission.

APA

Institute for Security Studies (n.d.). Rejoining the high table: South Africa and the UN Security Council. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-15.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. Rejoining the high table: South Africa and the UN Security Council. n.d. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-15.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=Rejoining the high table: South Africa and the UN Security Council |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-15.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudiesndrejoining, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{Rejoining the high table: South Africa and the UN Security Council}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-15.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }