ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
REGIONAL OFFICE JOHANNESBURG
Registration Number: 026-007 NPO
P O Box 3156, Parklands 2121
237 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Johannesburg 2193
Telephone: +27 (0) 11 447 5222 Fax: +27 (0) 11 880 5676
E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.rosalux.co.za
South Africa's place in the world
To highlight current developments in South Africa’s foreign policy, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
Southern Africa compiled and attaches documents, from South Africa and abroad, that discuss the
advantages and disadvantages of South Africa’s efforts to add its name to BRIC.
BRIC is an
acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China – countries with rapidly developing economies that
jointly promise a shift in current global economic power to the developing world.
President Zuma, recently returned from Beijing, the last stop on his tour of the BRIC countries, is
confident that South Africa will soon be sitting at the table alongside the BRIC countries. This
informal group of countries joined forces after a meeting in Yekaterinburg, Russia in 2009. Its
members see themselves as emerging countries that will together pioneer a new global economy.
South Africa wants to join the group.
Membership of BRIC promises international acceptance which South Africa considers very
important.
The 2010 World Cup offered a perfect opportunity for South Africa to display its
attributes and heighten its appeal to potential investors. Now that India, a member of BRIC, has
taken a pounding because of organisational and other problems in the run up to its hosting of the
Commonwealth Games, South Africa is blowing its own trumpet about how well things worked out
during the World Cup.
South Africa’s intention to become part of the BRIC forum is criticised by Mzukisi Qobo of the South
African Institute of International Affairs. In his opinion, the only connection between the members of
the BRIC group is the growing economic and geopolitical importance of these countries (see SAIIA).
Certainly, each of these countries has a growing economic and political impact within its own region
and beyond, but their foreign policies are not all sympathetic towards South Africa, Qobo says. For
example, in the Sudan's Darfur conflict, South Africa’s deployment of military peacekeepers did not
sit well with Russia and China who prevented harsher sanctions being imposed upon the regime in
Khartoum.
The BRIC group is viewed with skepticism by some experts in South Africa - a perception based on
a 2003 study of the investment bank, Goldman Sachs. At that time, the report predicted that Brazil,
Russia, India and China, would economically surpass the old G7 countries by the year 2040. Later,
the investment bank developed the "next 11" (N-11), a group of countries which it believes
possesses large growth opportunities. Goldman Sachs inter alia identified Korea, Turkey, Iran,
Pakistan and, from Africa, Nigeria as these countries. South Africa, a self-proclaimed leader in Africa
and the world, is offended that it does not feature as part of either group.
South Africa's population, its land mass and the size of its economy are significantly lagging behind
the other BRIC countries. Additionally, South Africa has no large company comparable to Gazprom
and Lukoil in Russia, China Mobile and China Construction Bank in China and Petrobras from Brazil.
The South African political scientist Qobo is urging the government to reconsider its intention to
become part of such a purely economically motivated group of countries. He says the global
objectives of these players are mainly to promote their own mercantilist interests. In his opinion,
South Africa should rather work together with countries that pursue mutual values such as
multilateralism, democracy, human rights and sustainable development.
It would be important for the development of South Africa's foreign policy, fraught though it is with
weaknesses, to have a value-based exchange with other countries outside Africa and within the
continent. The South African trade union federation COSATU criticizes, as contrary to the country’s
own values, the cautious attitude adopted by South Africa towards human rights violations in
neighbouring Zimbabwe. This also applies to the indifference of the government to decry the
suppression of political opposition in the small neighboring country of Swaziland.
Apart from offering prestige at global investor conferences as part of BRIC, countries such as China,
may very well give the nod that South Africa takes its place at the table - if impressions were
correctly interpreted during the state visit to Beijing in August - even if the country is not viewed as
having equal status. China sees South Africa as a gateway to the African market. As such, South
Africa should be acutely aware of the role it has been attributed by the large BRIC countries.
South Africa/Africa
Allafrica.com
http://allafrica.com/stories/201009030387.html
Mail&Guardian
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-08-27-lessons-in-stateparty-unity
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5 October 2010
Newsfromafrica
http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_11630.html
Pambazuka News
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/62739
SAIIA
http://www.saiia.org.za/index.php?view=article&catid=105%3Agreat-powers-a-africaopinion&id=1315%3Athe-bric-pitfalls-and-south-africas-place-in-theworld&tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page=&option=com_content&Itemid=124
Southafrica.info
http://www.southafrica.info/news/international/bricsa.htm
Timeslive
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article621179.ece/South-africa-wants-to-join-BRIC-nations
http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article106717.ece/Bric-ready-to-throw-its-economic-weightaround
TradeInvest South Africa
http://www.tradeinvestsa.co.za/feature_articles/345544.htm
International
China Daily
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2010-02/27/content_9512440.htm
Economic Times/India Times
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/South-Africa-wants-to-join-socalled-BRIC-nations/articleshow/6437527.cms
Global Post
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/south-africa/100825/jacob-zuma-beijing-china-economy
Hurriyet Daily News
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=south-africa-wants-to-join-so-called-bric-nations-201008-26
voanews
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Zuma-South-africa-wants-to-join-bric-nations-101469339.html
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