Many have lamented the fact that Brics is nothing more than a conglomerate of mere optics for grievance politics against the West. This is maybe true. Beyond establishing the new Brics New Development Bank, these annual summits have accomplished very little else. And even that bank is still not at a level of challenging the Bretton Woods Institutions (IMF and World Bank). But who is to say that optics on the scale of countries that make up 14% of the world’s population and a third of the global GDP is something to scoff at or look down on? According to IMF data, the purchasing power of the Brics bloc has already overtaken that of the G7 countries. Because of this, global economic power is already shifting towards the Brics nations and other emerging economies. In the near future we are entering, this will surely shake up the global geopolitical order by introducing an alternative, hopefully better balanced order than the current dominance of G7 countries in the global political and economic spheres. It is a good thing that the Brics nations are trying not only to cast off the shackles of Western dominance, but also to position themselves as a voice of emerging economies that challenges the hegemony of dollar trading. Whether it’ll achieve this is another matter, but it sure will put a thought or two in the mind of those who think the status quo is invariable.
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As per the current talks around Brics expansion, admitting countries like Indonesia and Saudi Arabia would boost its global standing.
Indonesia is a large, fast-growing economy which leads in the latest clean energy technology, and which can help countries like South Africa, in particular, in solving their energy security crises.
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As per the current talks around Brics expansion, admitting countries like Indonesia and Saudi Arabia would boost its global standing, giving it a strong voice within some institutions – like OPEC, through Saudi Arabia. Indonesia is a large, fast-growing economy which leads in the latest clean energy technology, and which can help countries like South Africa, in particular, in solving their energy security crises. China is projected to overtake the US by 2050 as the largest economy, with India also set to become the third largest by then. Nigeria, as Africa's largest economy, must also be invited to join the Brics nations. What is also imperative for Brics countries is to establish regulations for human rights among its members, and to make sure that the bloc doesn’t end up an anti-West group of authoritarian regimes. The winds of change in the global psyche point towards a democratic order even for China and Russia in the near future. This is where the current neutral stance of South Africa, India and Brazil is crucial in positioning themselves as the open bridge between the West and the East. It also makes no economic sense for emerging economies rich in mineral resources to close their highest trading routes, the G7 countries, to make some impotent political points, when they could capitalise on economic trade and soon become giant economies on equal footing with the West. The Brics nations must ultimately form a uniform voice on the global political issues, especially those involving its member states.
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The winds of change in the global psyche point towards a democratic order even for China and Russia in the near future. This is where the current neutral stance of South Africa, India and Brazil is crucial in positioning themselves as the open bridge between the West and the East.
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The Industrial Development Corporation reports that Brics economies count for a total of about 21,3% of South African world trade. China, who further strengthened its economic trade with South Africa during the summit, accounts for the highest chunk in Brics at 67,6%, while India and Brazil are at 26,5% and 4,2% respectively. Russia, on whose account South Africa has received so much flak for refusing to denounce its war attack on Ukraine outright, accounts for a mere 1,7% of South Africa’s trade with the world. One of the most imperative South African economic objectives should be the reduction of its trade deficit, which in June was recorded at R3,54 billion. The fastest way to do this is to increase trade with Brics and other African states. South African billionaire businessman, Patrice Motsepe, who is also President Cyril Ramaphosa’s brother-in-law, berated Russia and China during the breakfast business discussion organised by the government to interact with Brics leaders. He said that China and Russia treat African states as charity cases that require economic aid, while extracting their resources in a manner that doesn’t promote mutual economic sustainability development. The sentiment was echoed by Stavros Nicolaou, an executive of Aspen Pharmacare, who called on Brics members to prioritise barrier-free business within its countries and boost trading activities with the African Union states.
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Africa, in particular, desperately needs and must establish a continental free trade area beyond the artificial borders created by our colonial masters.
Motsepe emphasised the need for Brics to incorporate the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement in its trading arrangements.
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As a major game changer, the establishment of the New Development Bank must make sure that countries, especially from third world regions, gain more favourable loan terms which don’t strangle their economies, as has been the previous practice by the Bretton Woods Institutions. It must bolster and deepen the use of local currencies for financial use, and trade within its membership to break the stranglehold of the US dollar. And it must encourage its member states to form regional economic blocs that not only address the diverse and diverging interests of these nations, but also provide them with better collective economic leverage. For instance, South Africa would be encouraged to organise the southern Africa bloc, while Nigeria would be expected to do the same with Ecowas (the Economic Community of West African States); the same applies to Indonesia for Asean (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), and Saudi Arabia forms the Arab bloc. Africa, in particular, desperately needs and must establish a continental free trade area beyond the artificial borders created by our colonial masters. Motsepe emphasised the need for Brics to incorporate the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement in its trading arrangements. The objective of AfCFTA is to create a free-trade zone for economic activities and goods between 55 African Union states and the rest of the world. This aims at boosting trade by reducing barriers within eight African regional economies. He even called for special entrepreneurial Brics visas for these African states.
The realities of the colonial past make it almost impossible not to see the Brics optics as the rise of the global south against the imperial core. It is also important for other Brics nations not to be dragged into the resentment politics of Russia and China against the West, or their veiled designs to recolonise Africa by seemingly benign ways that will, all the same, prove fatal to our future development. The important thing is that Brics must be more of a foundation for economic growth with equal partners, and not be another cause for global political insecurity. The colonial mentality we resent from the West we shall not tolerate from the East either. And Russia must be pressured to cease activities – through the Wagner Group (whose leader, who attempted a failed coup in Russia, has just been killed in a suspicious plane crash) – of bolstering dictators on the African continent, or else face expulsion from the Brics nations. South Africa needs to champion this fact and drive it home during this summit.
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Brics must be more of a foundation for economic growth with equal partners, and not be another cause for global political insecurity. The colonial mentality we resent from the West we shall not tolerate from the East either.
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Even if the question of Brics’s own trading currency is not tabled for a moment, it must be made clear that the continued support for the use of the US dollar for global trade comes with the clear proviso that the US desist from using the dollar as a political weapon and for misuse of global financial systems. The deplorable manipulation of financial practices in just printing money for the exchange of goods and services from other nations without any real productivity from the US must come to an end. The industrialised countries in the West need to be seen as partners, rather than enemies, of the Brics nations. Some saw it as laughable dancing while France burned when the French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, said that their president, Emmanuel Macron, wants to be the first Western leader to be invited to the Brics summit. But if one of the ultimate goals of Brics is the dissolution of the G7 into a G20, this attitude should be encouraged. This could have been an opportunity for the BRICS member nations to question the French Colonial Pact, which became active on 19 December 1947 with its goal to maintain the continuation of colonial rule in Africa.
It was also a missed opportunity for South Africa, as the chair of the current summit, not to take France up as a guest in a similar manner to which South Africa sometimes gets invited to G7 meetings. The buy-in of Western leaders should be included in how economic and political power in the running of world affairs should devolve to all global regions. This way, the West will cease to be suspicious or scared of Brics and realise that its objectives are for a better world order.
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