By Gershwin Wanneburg
By now it is almost predictable that South Africa will respond with great alacrity to a crisis that would humble nations with far greater resources.
Just take the devastating electricity blackouts that have for years crippled its economy. The precision with which South Africa has handled this infrastructure disaster, complete with schedules and apps to monitor the timing of power cuts, is worthy of study. It has to be said, though, that over the past fifteen years, successive governments have consistently failed to respond to the root causes of the crisis itself.
Nevertheless, this country’s crisis-spun work ethic once again came miraculously to the fore with the 15th BRICS summit, which took place in Johannesburg from 22 to 24 August, the biggest such event in the group’s history. Heads of state and government of the five BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa – were in attendance, along with presidents, vice presidents, and finance ministers from more than 30 other countries.
Business and innovation
It is a marvel that these leaders and their army of entourages were catered for without major incidents, given the severe destruction of services that the rest of the citizenry experience every day in Africa’s most developed economy.
The BRICS gathering included a variety of side events centered around business and innovation. Its success did South Africa’s international standing a world of good.
Just a few months ago, it looked like the summit might not even happen as South Africa found itself facing off against the world’s most powerful nation. It seemed that the United States had reached the end of its patience with Pretoria’s soft stance on Russia, accusing President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration of selling weapons to Russia.
Pressure over Russia
Ramaphosa’s government, along with many other African countries, have refused to take a stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
Ahead of the meeting, there was great controversy over the attendance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been accused of crimes related to the war in Ukraine. South Africa, as a signatory to the statutes of the International Criminal Court, would have been obligated to arrest Putin on his arrival in the country.
For weeks, South Africa refused to bow to pressure to bar Putin from attending the BRICS summit. In the end, Putin sent his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov instead. But it was a fair tradeoff because, in the end, the Americans apologised for accusing South Africa of illegally selling weapons to Russia.
From pariah to international darling
Such was the state of relations between the US and South Africa that there were even calls from American lawmakers for a key trade meeting due to be held in Johannesburg in November to be moved elsewhere. On September 20, the two governments released a statement saying the meeting would go ahead as planned.
Bearing in mind that, aside from its electricity crisis, South Africa is in the grip of a protracted economic torpor, the way it has handled the diplomatic standoff has been impressive. Not to mention that, barely three decades ago, South Africa’s white-minority government was an international pariah. In addition, Ramaphosa’s government is by far the junior member of BRICS, having joined last and being an economic minnow in comparison to the powerhouses among which it finds itself. In this context, what South Africa pulled off in the months leading up to and following the summit, could be considered at least a minor international relations coup.
South African international relations minister Naledi Pandor said the summit was “All in all – a big success.” She pointed to the establishment of sectoral bodies to include women and young people.
“We are not looking at BRICS for now, but we are looking at BRICS well into the future, and the presence of those young people confirms that we have a forward-looking approach to this forum,” she said.
But, of course, the biggest news from the summit was the welcoming of six new members: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
See also: The 4 biggest moments from this week’s BRICS summit — and why they matter
If nothing else, it can be said that South Africa’s unwavering position on Russia, and the resulting standoff with the US, brought unprecedented attention to BRICS’s status as a new frontier of geopolitics.
Here’s a brief overview of South Africa’s journey as a BRICS member.
In 2011, when South Africa accepted the invitation to join BRICS, it was a very different country. Jacob Zuma was two years into his presidency, having defeated Thabo Mbeki in a bruising leadership battle in 2007. Today, Zuma himself is locked in a battle with Ramaphosa, whom he has accused of being involved in leaking his medical records. Zuma stepped down in 2018 after public pressure in response to a string of corruption allegations.
Back in 2011, the country’s GDP was worth $696.5 billion. In 2022, its GDP was valued at nearly $950 billion. GDP per capita was around $13,300 in 2011, versus $15,500 a decade later. Inflation was at 5% versus 6.7% at the end of 2022. And unemployment, the country’s perennial bugbear, was nearly ten percentage points higher at 34.6%.
At the time of joining BRICs, South Africa said it would use its membership to boost strategic cooperation among emerging market economies of the South to support the African agenda. It listed a number of indicators that situated South Africa’s position in relation to its new international partners:
In December 2010, the BRICs countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, sans South Africa) had a combined GDP of around R18 trillion and was expected to account for 61% of global growth in three years.
The 2010-2011 Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum ranked South Africa favourably in relation to the other BRICS countries. South Africa, the highest-scoring African country that year, ranked at 54 on the list, Brazil at 58, India at 51, and China 27.
In the 2019 report, South Africa ranked 60th, India 68th and Brazil 71st. China remained the top performer among BRICS countries, in 28th spot.
As the BRICS+ era beckons, South Africa’s role as a junior among giants will no doubt be fascinating to watch; not least to see whether the country is able to overcome of its own internal obstacles, and how that success or failure affects its ability to achieve the grand ambitions of South-South solidarity when even among its own ranks such unity has been disastrously lacking, and, where it has existed, it has often been to the detriment of national interests.
See also: At BRICS Summit, Guterres global unity call in face of ‘existential’ challenges
