As BRICS chair, South Africa Vows to advance Africa’s trade, development

South Africa will use its position as the 2023 chair of the BRICS multilateral bloc to advance the interests of African states under the theme of ‘BRICS and Africa Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Multilateralism’.

“Africa supplied raw materials that contributed to the industrializations of other parts of the world. It is now time to use our resources to drive our own industrializations. South Africa sees its chairing of BRICS in 2023 as an opportunity to drive African industrialization,” said South Africa’s trade, industry and competition minister, Ebrahim Patel, during a recent South Africa BRICS Business Council working groups briefing.

BRICS is an acronym for five leading emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, which are identified as rising economic powers. “While we will continue to export raw materials, we must not become trapped as the supplier of raw materials to other countries when there are opportunities to add value locally and create more jobs in South Africa. This is a classical neocolonial trap that must be avoided,” Patel emphasized.

Therefore, Patel called for the change in the composition of South Africa’s trade with BRICS partners to enable more South African manufactured goods to be exported. “South Africa and Africa as a whole cannot only be importing partners of the vast industrial might of Brics countries but must forge economic and commercial relationships to drive their own industrialization agendas,” he added. Concurring with Patel, South African ambassador and BRICS sherpa Professor Anil Sooklal criticized South Africa, Africa and BRICS countries for not moving in tandem, arguing that discussions in government and the private sector should focus on developing a common approach to look at opportunities that exist between BRICS countries for the benefit of South Africa and the whole continent.