Is the West Losing Africa to China?

The David McWilliams Podcast

David McWilliams

News & Politics

4.5 • 692 Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

South Africa is one of the places where the 21st century is being made in real time. Against the backdrop of war in the Middle East, we ask what rising energy prices mean for countries already struggling with poverty, unemployment and fragile infrastructure. If you want to see the decline of American influence and the rise of Chinese power, Southern Africa is where it’s happening. Along the way, we get a street-level feel for modern South Africa, from the fading grandeur of central Joburg to the sprawling reality of Soweto, where apartheid’s legacy still shapes daily life, but where democracy has also held in ways many once thought impossible. We talk about inequality, migration, religion, corruption, black economic empowerment, and the strange new elite of “slay queens,” all as windows into how power and money now move through South African society. With exploding population growth, vast mineral wealth, and huge renewable energy potential, the continent is becoming central to the global economy. China understands that. The West, increasingly, does not.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	To understand the economy, you have to understand human nature.
0:06.3	This podcast is powered by ACAST.
0:12.4	This morning of Congress. How are you doing there? That was a little bit of or Josie, as they call it down here. The podcast
0:41.3	today is all going to be about economics, the politics, not just of South Africa, but of
0:46.7	Southern Africa. And against a background of war in the Middle East, what that war is going to do
0:53.6	to the people here, number one. And number two, the evidence of war in the Middle East, what that war is going to do to the people here,
0:54.9	number one, and number two, the evidence I'm getting down here is if you want to come to a part
1:01.0	of the world and you want to see the evidence of the waning of America's influence and the
1:09.1	evidence of the acceleration of Chinese influence, South Africa is the
1:14.7	place where all this is playing out. John, how are you? You'd love it down here. Yeah, I've never
1:20.2	been to South Africa. I absolutely love to go, to be honest. But actually, as Anthems go,
1:26.5	South African Anthem is one of my favourite.
1:29.5	That, the Russian national anthem and, of course, the French.
1:33.1	They are the best anthems.
1:34.4	I thought you were going to say shoulder to shoulder, John.
1:37.6	Oh, yeah, well, that comes in and forth, I suppose.
1:41.0	Anyway, no, well, I'll tell you an interesting thing about the South African anthem.
1:43.8	So the South African anthem is the only anthem the world who has five languages and three different keys.
1:50.7	Three different keys, right?
1:53.0	Because it's the five languages because it's put together.
1:56.0	There's nine official languages in South Africa.
1:58.9	Nine, right?
	...

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