THE BRICS Summit has come and gone.
And now the question in Mzansi people’s minds is: what is in it for us?
Well, it may be too early to answer that question, but our government wants us to believe that the summit will yield positive results.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said China gave Mzansi about R500 million and donated emergency power equipment worth R167 million to help fight the electricity crisis that has plunged the country into power outages.
India is offering to help the BRICS partners improve the quality of their technology, science and education.
In a declaration that was adopted by all five member countries of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), there seems to be a consensus that the block would work together and share ideas on growing their economies.
The declaration document reads: "As we build upon 15 years of BRICS summits, we further commit ourselves to strengthening the framework of mutually beneficial BRICS cooperation under the three pillars of political and security, economic and financial, and cultural and people-to-people co-operation, and to enhancing our strategic partnership for the benefit of our people through the promotion of peace, a more representative, fairer international order, a reinvigorated and reformed multilateral system, sustainable development and inclusive growth.”
It all sounds good, but what will the cost be for Mzansi’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine war and its friendship with China?
China is accused of trampling on human rights. Its relationship with the West is not so good.
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It seems South Africa is not concerned with all that, and its relations with the Asian country are mostly about economic growth, not political issues.
China has offered Mzansi a lot in terms of donations and help in economic growth and employment. If you look around, I bet that most solar panels you see were likely made in China. The clothes we wear are often Chinese textiles. Many of the appliances we use in our households are from China.
That tells you that the relations between the two countries have been beneficial to Mzansi.
Russia, on the other hand, is pushing for de-dollarisation as its economy has been crippled by sanctions imposed by the West over its invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking at the summit via video link, Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed the West for “irrational and illegal” sanctions and accused the West of the war in Ukraine, saying it started eight years ago.
De-dollarisation seems to be the way out for Putin since his country is banned from SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication).
However, it seems that other BRICS members disagree with him and want the dollar to remain.
What they do agree on is that when they do trade and finance projects among BRICS states they finance them in local currency.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana summed it up.
"It's not an alternative to SWIFT. It is a payment system which facilitates a deepening of the use of local currencies," Godongwana said.
He said about 75% of Mzansi’s economic liability was with the West and North America.
If South Africa can strike a balance and maintain its relations with the West and its BRICS friends, it may be a good outcome for a country that needs both blocs to improve its economy.
