Regime on foreign direct investment within the Southern African Development Community (SADC): A comparative study of foreign direct investment (FDI) laws of select Southern African countries

Abstract

This paper has as its emphasis the cogent need for the effective implementation of a general but uniform legal framework or environment for the treatment of foreign direct investment by the recipient African States. Hence its purpose, namely, the need to move towards the development of a harmonised legal regime on foreign direct investment within the Southern African Development Community. This necessitates a comparative study of the FDI laws of select South African countries, examining and analysing the principal features of the legal regimes of some of these countries with the aim of illustrating the areas of commonality and highlighting the differences. It also assesses the feasibility of developing or adopting an already existing model legislation on direct foreign investment by contracting parties to the SADC treaty. It thus proves instructive not to confine this paper to Southern African countries, but rather to draw from the experiences of various other countries on the African continent.