ANC Plans a March Against the United States — Is South Africa Picking a Fight With the World’s Biggest Economy Instead of Fixing Its Own Collapsing House?
While Crime, Gang Violence and Unemployment Are Destroying Communities at Home
South Africa is burning from the inside — yet our leaders are looking outward.
The ANC, led by Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula, has announced plans to march against what they call “US imperialist aggression.” This move has sparked outrage and confusion among ordinary South Africans who wake up every day to a very different reality: crime out of control, gang violence terrorising townships, record unemployment, collapsing services, and a shrinking economy.
South Africans are asking a simple but uncomfortable question: 👉 Why are we protesting foreign powers while our own country is falling apart?
Right now: • Violent crime and murders are among the highest in the world
• Gang violence rules entire neighbourhoods, especially in the Western Cape
• Unemployment remains devastatingly high, particularly among the youth
• Businesses are closing, investors are nervous, and skilled workers are leaving
• Police stations are under-resourced and communities feel abandoned
Yet instead of mobilising mass action against crime syndicates, drug lords, corruption networks and failing municipalities, the ruling party wants to mobilise people against the United States — the biggest economy in the world and one of South Africa’s most important trade partners.
This is not a symbolic protest. It carries real consequences.
Marching against the US sends a loud message to global investors that South Africa is hostile, unstable and politically reckless. It risks: • Reduced foreign investment
• Trade retaliation and economic isolation
• Job losses in export-dependent industries
• Further weakening of the rand
• Loss of access to key markets and partnerships
At a time when South Africa desperately needs jobs, capital, skills and growth, antagonising a major global economic power is not bravery — it is economic self-harm.
Even more concerning is the silence on other global abuses. Critics point out that the ANC often chooses which injustices deserve outrage and which do not, based on ideology rather than principle. This selective activism makes South Africa look inconsistent and unreliable on the world stage.
South Africa does not need international enemies. It needs internal solutions.
What the country should be focusing on: • Crushing organised crime and gangs
• Fixing the police and justice system
• Creating real jobs, not slogans
• Rebuilding infrastructure and electricity supply
• Making South Africa safe for investment and business
• Putting citizens’ safety and dignity first
Marches will not stop bullets. Protests will not create jobs. Foreign blame will not fix broken leadership.
South Africa’s biggest threat is not Washington. It is crime, unemployment, corruption and misgovernance at home.
Until leaders confront that truth, no amount of marching will save this country.