We just wanted to buy toffee apples.
It was one of those blindingly bright afternoons in Pietermaritzburg, the kind that burns through flip-flops and turns tar into treacle. Lee-Roy already had his apple, chomping away, the red toffee coating cracking under his teeth like glass. I had 20 cents in my pocket. So we ran — barefoot, joyful, believing the day had no teeth.
We reached the tuck shop, tucked behind a house on Greyling Street. The gate was open. The man behind it wasn’t — not with his face, not with his tone. He looked at me like I’d come to steal something. Behind him, a pit bull twitched. Silent. Watching.
The moment the door opened, the dog lunged.
Straight for me.
Its jaws locked on my leg and wouldn’t let go. No growl, no warning — just violence. My screams were useless. Blood soaked my sock. When it finally let go, I limped home. The adults barely blinked. “You must’ve done something,” they muttered through their cigarette smoke. “No dog bites for no reason.”
That memory has never left me — not because of the scar, but because of how it prepared me for the world I now see.
Sweet promises, silent teeth
South Africa, I fear, is that barefoot boy again.
Running toward something sweet. Still believing the gate is open for us. Still thinking the bite must be our fault.
We engage the West in polite diplomacy — signing deals and letting consultants “capacity build” us with frameworks that don’t fit our shoes. And then we act shocked when the dog turns.
Let’s talk plainly.
The US isn’t interested in South Africa’s sovereignty. It’s interested in our compliance.
Take Agoa — the African Growth and Opportunity Act. In 2023, South Africa exported more than $3.6-billion worth of goods under Agoa preferences, supporting over 62,000 jobs.
But when Pretoria takes a stance on Palestine or aligns with BRICS+ interests, that trade is threatened like a bone being withdrawn from a growling dog. US lawmakers explicitly warned that hosting Russian naval exercises could “trigger a review” of Agoa eligibility — as if sovereignty should be subject to star-spangled approval.
The same pattern haunts Pepfar — the $8-billion US health programme that supports about 1.6 million South Africans with HIV treatment. While still operational, it now dangles without reauthorisation, its future dependent on political mood swings and moral strings. Public health becomes proxy politics.
Notably, US pressure spares what matters most to their industrial future.
There are no tariffs on South Africa’s critical minerals — the platinum, manganese and rare earth minerals needed for electric vehicles, defence systems and clean energy tech.
They’ll tax our textiles, review our benefits, and squeeze our sovereignty — but they’ll never block our rocks.
That’s not policy — it’s plunder with paperwork.
In response, BRICS+ nations are trying to neutralise the dog’s teeth — not with defiance, but by dulling its bite. The move away from the US dollar in cross-border trade and reserve holdings is not just about finance. It’s about freedom. A de-dollarised world would make US sanctions less lethal and Global South voices less easy to muzzle.
But without strong institutions and coordinated strategy, de-dollarisation becomes just another slogan — bark without bite.
And yet we pretend this is a partnership.
It’s not.
It’s a behavioural contract — enforced with sanctions, sealed with smiles.
Whether through visa policy, surveillance, narrative warfare or conditional finance, the bite is never far. And when it comes, we limp home – bloodied, disoriented and still expected to say thank you.
But here’s the thing: the American pit bull isn’t just baring its teeth at us. It looks rabid — biting even its own.
In 2018, under President Donald Trump, tariffs on steel and aluminium were imposed under the guise of “national security” — a move that raised costs for US automakers and builders while leading to net job losses in downstream industries. The Trump-era trade war with China inflicted such damage on US farmers that Washington was forced to pay over $28-billion in subsidies just to keep them afloat.
And in 2024, the Biden administration followed suit — announcing new tariffs on electric vehicles, semiconductors and green technologies. The move appeased industrial lobbies but undermined US climate goals and raised consumer costs.
And it’s not just China. The US is slapping tariffs of up to 35% on Canadian goods, including oil and autos, and 39% on Swiss exports — crippling chocolate and watch industries in one of America’s oldest trading partners.
A dog that bites indiscriminately isn’t guarding the house — it’s a danger to the entire street.
The world sees this. So does BRICS+.
But dulling the dog’s teeth means little if we don’t reinforce our own gate.
The bite finds the wound
But the bite only finds purchase because we keep exposing the wound.
American pressure works — not because they’re clever, but because we’re brittle. Our fragility is not just exploited — it’s self-inflicted.
Home is no refuge either
Here’s the harder truth: the blame doesn’t only sit with Washington. Some of it sits right here — on our stoep, feet up, smoking. We’ve spent too long performing victimhood while mismanaging responsibility.
We say we’re being bitten — and it’s true — but we keep showing up barefoot, with no plan, no discipline and no internal shield.
What safety, what dignity, what respect can sovereignty command if:
- State capacity has atrophied? The Presidency’s own State Capability Review cites critical vacancies, skill mismatches, and policy bottlenecks across departments.
- Electricity is unreliable? Stage 6 load-shedding in 2023 cost more than R1-billion per day in lost productivity, according to Business Leadership South Africa.
- Youth unemployment sits at 46%, one of the highest in the world — an economic time bomb no “Global South” rhetoric can defuse?
- Education outcomes are collapsing? South Africa ranked last out of 57 countries in the 2023 Pirls reading study, with 81% of Grade 4 learners unable to read for meaning.
- Capital formation has collapsed? Gross fixed capital formation remains stuck below 15% of GDP — well below the 25% needed for inclusive growth.
Let’s not lie to ourselves. We are limping because we haven’t built the muscle.
We romanticise Pan-Africanism while outsourcing our future to procurement fraud and patronage politics.
You cannot posture as a power bloc if your hospitals don’t have gloves, your municipalities can’t keep clean water running, and your brightest engineers are building Teslas in Texas.
We cannot whine about America’s grip while feeding the dysfunction that makes us dependent.
Structural dignity before strategic defiance
Sovereignty is not a speech. It’s structure. It’s state capacity. It’s the quiet dignity of a government that works, institutions that hold, and a citizenry that doesn’t beg for crumbs while blaming the baker.
We are at a crossroads. One direction says: “Comply quietly. Walk softly. Don’t upset the West.” The other says: “Roar back — BRICS, bullets and bravado.”
But there’s a third way. And it’s harder.
It says: Fix the home. Fix the bloody home.
Clean out the rot. Reward competence.
Build an energy policy that doesn’t change with every new board appointment.
Equip our youth with skills for tomorrow — not slogans from yesterday.
Build a foreign policy grounded in institutional confidence — not inferiority dressed up as defiance.
We can’t confront Washington with press releases if our per capita productivity is declining and our debt service costs exceed R385-billion annually — more than we spend on policing or public health.
Until we do that, every toffee apple will taste like gravel. Every treaty will be a trick. And every open gate will hide a bite.
No more limping
I was a child when I realised that some spaces are not safe — no matter how sweet they seem. But South Africa is not a child. And we can’t afford to play the fool any more.
The blood is on the pavement. The scar is real.
And the world isn’t going to apologise, so let’s stop hoping it will.
Let’s start walking differently. DM
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