South Africa: South Africa Moves to Strengthen its Economic Standing

 South Africa is set to host it prime BRICS summit as the newest member of this group of developing economies comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China. As the Durban conference approaches later this month, South African are wondering what its role as host will bring to the country -- and the continent.

South Africa, the smallest economy in BRICS, joined the group in 2011, expecting it would strengthen the country’s position globally, and offset the great influence wielded by traditional Western powers.

“Our ties are historic," said South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Masabane, noting that her country has long had economic and cultural relations to several of the BRICS nations, notably India and China.

Analyst Lyal White, chief of the Center for Dynamic Markets at the Gordon Institute of Business Studies, said while South Africa may not technically belong in this elite group, it is the continent’s powerhouse and provides a gateway to African markets.

"It’s an opportunity for South Africa to really punch above its weight in world fora and to really engage with the world schedule at the very highest level and to drive the economic and political next of the developing world," he said.

Johannesburg is a multicultural city and has long been a hub for immigrants from around the world.

Shopkeeper Zubair Ismail gets amount of his goods from India and China. But if he had the luck to address the BRICS members, he says he’d make a surprising request.

"Basically the major thing would be to stop imports from China, India or wherever, and try and rebuild our manufacturing locally. Because that would increase our employment and would as well give everyone a scope, from manufacturing to wholesaling to retailing locally," he said.

Across town at the city’s oldest Chinese store, business is good. The store has deep ties to the local community and has been going strong for 60 years. Owner King Pon says BRICS is unlikely to change that.

"People are very capitalistic. I don’t really think you need your major BRICS government agreements for people to do business. Where there’s money, people will flock," he said.

Critics say that BRICS is not a new dynamic - just an extra form of colonialism that allows rich nations to exploit Africa.

Academic Patrick Bond says BRICS will be disastrous for the continent. "It’s extraction that is so devastating to [the] environment and to people, and what BRICS, what it looks like it’s trying to do, is make that additional formal and legitimate, and additional fluid, with additional finance," he said.

BRICS governments would argue that finance is the key to counter exploitation and they plan to use the summit to unveil their own development bank to benefit the African continent and beyond.