Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in South Africa: National Security and Regional Strategy

The South African government's Counter-Terrorism legislation emerged to answer the growing threat of terrorism both domestically and beyond its borders. Through multilateral platforms like the Southern African Development Community and African Union, South Africa has been involved in contributing to the formulation of counter-terrorism measures as well as update previous counter-terrorism strategies in an attempt to create the most effective system against those who are indiscriminately terrorising and murdering innocent African women and children. Furthermore, the South African government aims to deal with terrorist threats from groups like ISIL, becoming ever more daring and deadly in the Southern African region with its counter-terrorism system. A successful counter-terrorism strategy is expected to restore peace, stability, economic growth, and a much-needed sense of security in the affected areas. This paper, therefore, focused on South Africa's counter-terrorism strategy at the national and regional levels. It explored South Africa's institutional Approach to Domestic and Regional Security and Counter-Terrorism