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As South Africa celebrates Heritage Day, it is not enough to look back at our past, we must also reflect on our collective future. Heritage is more than culture and memory; it is about reclaiming identity and unity, without which Africa cannot thrive in the emerging multipolar world.
Heritage is not just about culture; it is about reclaiming our collective identity, as Graça Machel reminded us in her recent Oxford University speech. Without identity, we remain divided. And without unity, Africa will not benefit from the emerging multipolar world.
Nowhere is this lesson clearer than in South Africa itself, a nation that illustrates both the promise of solidarity and the perils of division.
South Africa offers a clear example of the risks of disunity.
A significant portion of its economy relies on African markets. Companies such as MTN, Vodacom, DSTV, Pep Stores, Shoprite, Ackermans, and many more generate billions in revenues across the continent, revenues that sustain jobs and public services at home.
But imagine if, in response to xenophobic movements like Operation Dudula, other African countries chose to boycott South African goods and services. The consequences would be devastating: the economy could collapse overnight, jobs would disappear, and the impact of U.S. tariffs would multiply.
The problem lies in a dangerous confusion: regional integration has too often been wrongly equated with uncontrolled illegal immigration. The fear that open borders “steal jobs” has taken root in people’s minds, even though evidence repeatedly proves it false.
Unless government leaders communicate more effectively, through education campaigns that explain the benefits of interconnected economies, these myths will persist.
Africa’s vast market of 1.4 billion people represents South Africa’s greatest opportunity. With expertise in engineering, manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, finance, agro-processing, IT, and tourism, South Africa could not only fuel its own growth but also help address youth unemployment across the continent.
This is not a new vision. Liberation leaders like Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, and Govan Mbeki understood that South Africa’s freedom was inseparable from Africa’s renaissance. They championed a future of shared cultural and economic solidarity, paving the way for partnership rather than isolation.
That legacy is now under threat. “Divide and conquer” tactics, old and new, risk undoing decades of progress, turning Africans against one another instead of toward the common goal of prosperity. The danger is simple: undermining solidarity weakens us at the very moment when unity could transform Africa into a global force.
South Africa has repeatedly been handed opportunities to lead Africa, but has too often fallen short.
2010 FIFA World Cup: The world’s spotlight was on South Africa. Yet little evidence remains of how this global event advanced either South Africa’s long-term development or Africa’s collective standing.
BRICS Membership: South Africa entered BRICS as Africa’s representative, a chance to project continental interests into the Global South. Instead, its role narrowed to a national agenda. Now, other African nations are being invited into BRICS directly, diluting South Africa’s leverage.
G20 Presidency: As current holder of the G20 presidency, expectations are high that South Africa will deliver tangible outcomes for Africa. Yet its credibility is undermined by internal fractures, including anti-African sentiment at home.
All eyes are on the upcoming G20 Summit. Will South Africa seize this chance to act for Africa, or once again retreat into narrow national concerns?
The urgency of unity becomes even clearer when placed against the backdrop of the shifting global order.
The world is no longer defined by one or two centers of power. The rise of BRICS+, Asia’s economic resurgence, and shifting alliances in Latin America and the Middle East confirm that multipolarity is here. Every power, be it the U.S., China, or India, is competing for Africa’s markets and resources.
Around the world, protectionism and shrinking trust dominate. Americans retreat inward. Europeans fortify their borders. Even within Africa, South Africans resist integration with fellow Africans.
The West may have systems to manage these internal tensions, but Africa does not. Our divisions are exploited from outside and weaponized from within.
Movements like Operation Dudula threaten to undo the spirit of Pan-Africanism, while other African nations such as Botswana, Namibia, and Zambia move ahead with trade alliances that bypass South Africa.
At the same time, individual states like South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo negotiate separately with powers like the U.S., undermining Africa’s collective leverage.
On this Heritage Day, South Africa, and the continent, must reflect on what unity means for survival.
Without unity, Africa will continue to lose trade battles.
Without unity, Africa will remain dependent on external powers.
Without unity, Africa will remain resource-rich but power-poor.
The multipolar world is not Africa’s enemy. It is an opportunity, if we rise together. The African Union, regional blocs, and continental powers must urgently move from rhetoric to action, from paper agendas to practical unity.
Heritage is not only about remembering who we are. It is about building the Africa we want, united, sovereign, and powerful.
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