At a moment of rising global rivalry, South Africa faces renewed pressure to choose between competing world powers. It shouldn't.

The case for pure interest-based foreign policy has never been clearer. South African poll data shows that only a third of South Africans favour an ideological approach to international alignment, with a clear majority backing foreign policy decisions based on economic and national benefit rather than historical loyalty, ideology, or identity. This view holds regardless of whether the country’s leading trade and investment partners are liberal democracies or authoritarian states.

The economic numbers are instructive: South Africa’s fixed investment as a share of GDP has slipped to around half the global average, while unemployment remains above 30%. In this context, for the government to pursue ideological alliances over pragmatic partnerships is reckless. Whether engaging with the United States, China, Russia, or any other power, Pretoria’s sole focus should be to maximise job creation, capital inflows, and opportunity for ordinary South Africans.

This strategy does not require endorsing the values or politics of trading partners. It means, simply, that national interest stands above global factionalism and foreign agendas. The test for every international deal or alliance should be a straightforward one: does it advance the security, prosperity, and freedom of South Africans?

Anchoring policy in national interest gives the country leverage and stability in a turbulent world. In the view of this newspaper to ignore that lesson would be to surrender agency, diminish resilience, and place South Africa’s future in the hands of others.