Abstract

This article advances the argument that it is imperative to rethink the African economic ethic of indigenisation with a view to coming up with a regional approach to the Southern African economic indigenisation, which embraces neo-liberal capitalism in the form of African capitalism or for the Southern African Development Community (SADC), what the authors would call “SADCapitalism.” The article is guided by the theory of evolutionary economics, which argues that there is no universal economic theory but that the appropriate theory will have to take into account the historical background of nations and regions. Document review research methodology and thematic content data analysis techniques were used. The debate in this article will help inform many African governments in coming up with an ethical regional approach to indigenisation for the benefit of the majority indigenous people and contribute to the “Africapitalism” debate. Both indigenisation and global neo-liberal capitalism have been criticised, but they appear to be indispensable for many reasons. It seems no research has been done so far to analyze how the principles of both neo-liberalism and indigenisation can be reviewed to reduce poverty in SADC states.