South Africans barter with nothing - completely powerless (5)
I believe the answer is:
swazi
'powerless' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are adjectives, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'south africans barter with nothing completely' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'south' could be 's' (abbreviation) and 's' is present in the answer.
'with' could be 'w' (short for with) and 'w' is found within the answer.
'nothing' could be 'z' and 'z' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'ai' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for swazi that I've seen before include "Bantu language" , "From a landlocked kingdom of southern Africa" , "South African" , "Citizen of a monarchy landlocked within South Africa" , "Native of S. Afr. nation" .)