Corporate Social Responsibility Forays in Southern Africa: Perspectives from South Africa and Zambia

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been gaining significant ground in Southern Africa, especially in the last decade. This chapter proffers an historical analysis of CSR in two Southern African countries namely: South Africa and Zambia. In South Africa, the post-apartheid period, which spans 20 years, is examined, whilst in the Zambian case, the post one-party state era of 23 years is taken into consideration. The discussion thus focusses on the evolution of CSR in South Africa and Zambia, and it attempts to show how it has taken shape in these two different contexts. Furthermore, it anchors CSR in the socio-political and economic milieus of the two countries. This is done in order to show how CSR efforts are nuanced in the two countries. The discussion also teases out some of the global trends relating to CSR and how they impact on the two countries’ CSR endeavours. The paper ends with future considerations for CSR in the two countries and also tries to show how their fortunes may have implications for the development agenda of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).