A VIEW OF THE WEEK: What are Brics friends for? Not for this

I once had a friend who if I needed something I would just call. Another who would invite me over to smoke zol. And a third friend who seemed to do nothing at all.

Can you guess which of these is most like South Africa?

South Africa now has six more Brics friends than we had at the start of the week, after the international economic grouping invited Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to join from January next year. An expanded band that will again test South Africa’s non-alignment stance that has many on the international stage scratching their heads.

This would be the ideal time for SA’s leaders to brush up on what a friend is and does, if nothing more than to avoid mistakes they have made before.

What makes a good friend?

What makes a good friend? Some will say there are a few cardinal rules: Don’t cheat, steal or be k*k.

Something you may want to avoid is leaving a friend on the runway because you are with another, ‘disrespectfully’ put their flag on the floor, or rugby tackle a friend’s delegation.

It also helps to be loyal, trusting and supportive. In short, your friends should know you have their back in a fight.

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Our friends may have not appreciated the week starting with President Cyril Ramaphosa telling his citizens: “We will not be drawn into a contest between global powers. Instead, our country strives to work with all countries for global peace and development.”

He pointed out SA is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, “a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc”. Of which more than a few have, or will, break non-alignment when it serves their nation’s interests.

South Africa is grateful non-alignment wasn’t a buzzword for some nations when we were in the grips of oppression under apartheid.

In the days that followed, much of the nation’s attention was on the Brics summit hosted in Sandton, with SA trying to play the perfect host. Strengthening economic ties and calls for unity dominated discussions, with a common currency suggested and expansion of membership agreed on.

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The inclusion of the six new nations will see Brics countries account for more of the world’s raw materials, 37% of its purchasing power, and 46% of its population. It is the strengthening of an already growing power grouping in global economics, overshadowing the G7.

Many South Africans, disillusioned by our dependence on the dollar and the US economy, have urged SA to jump head-first into the new grouping. They are punch drunk on the idea of being on the right side of the next superpower bloc.

Marriage of occasional convenience

But perhaps the reason South Africa is not going to sneak out the window and elope with Brics is because it is not a group of friends at all, but rather a political and economic polygamist marriage of occasional convenience. Trade numbers suggest this may be the case.

Our biggest markets of export remain China (12.0%), the United States (7.4%), the United Kingdom (6%), Japan (5.6%) and Mozambique (5.6%). Only one of these is a fellow Brics country, while three of our top five export markets are G7 countries.

We give slightly better than we get within Brics, importing from China (23.3%), India (6.3%) and the soon to be Brics member United Arab Emirates (4.5%). G7 nations the United States (8.5%) and Germany (7.7%) also make up our top five import trade partners.

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Less than 20% of the products we sent to the world in 2022 went to Brics nations, while well over a third (almost 40%) of the products we brought in came from the same group. This is a one-sided trade friendship that needs to be addressed.

South Africa needs to look after itself, including demanding more trust and favourable export from its “friends”.

So while SA may not be the best friend you can have, it seem with Brics “friendship” is only relative.