South Africans looking forward to more extensive BRICS cooperation

People in South Africa, an important member of the BRICS, are looking forward to more extensive BRICS cooperation under the multilateral mechanism, while eying more fruitful bilateral cooperation with China.

The 16th BRICS Summit, the first summit since the expansion of this intergovernmental organization in early 2024, was held in Russian city of Kazan from Tuesday to Thursday.

BRICS is a group of leading emerging markets and developing countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The first BRIC Summit was held in 2009 in Russia. South Africa was invited to join in December 2010, forming BRICS.

Talking about the impact of the BRICS cooperation mechanism, people in South Africa said that the BRICS has strongly promoted the development of member countries and is attracting more countries to be part of it.

"South Africa has had many benefits from this BRICS alliance. We found that more South African products have been exported to other countries, namely South African wine, which is growing in popularity, and rooibos tea. We've also had more educational exchange programs with South African scholars being able to travel abroad to learn more and bring that insight into the country," said Nokukhanya Khanyi Zulu, a language specialist.

"I believe the reason for many countries applying to join BRICS is because it will lead to stronger growth between the countries due to higher economic trade. I think that this will create a stronger economy for the member countries due to higher trade between them. And I think that there will be higher increased tourism between the countries," said Keshvir Ajit Tugh, a data analyst.

"South Africa has so much potential, but I think we also need to develop a lot more and create a lot more opportunities for employment. And I think that the other developing countries in the BRICS grouping have often been quite successful at that, kind of creating employment, so I think that we have a lot to learn, and also in terms of developing technology, which is where the future is," said Clea Schultz Mofokeng, a high school teacher.

Regarding expectations for future BRICS cooperation, South Africans said that they are looking forward to more cooperation across the board, including culture, education, trade, technology, and tourism.

"I expect to see more cross-cultural education. In this way, more nations will benefit from this alliance, through this understanding. I'd also like to see more youth development projects, so that the youth of each country involved in this alliance can have more of a social connection, building sustainable relationships," said Zulu.

"I think that the expectation is that we can learn better ways of engaging with technology and certainly better ways of city planning. I guess the sort of big populations and to uplift people out of poverty through education," said Mofokeng.

Regarding cooperation with China under the BRICS mechanism, people in South Africa said that the two countries have been conducting extensive cooperation across various sectors, and they are looking forward to the strengthening of bilateral exchanges.

"The China-South Africa collaboration has had many mutual benefits. For instance, in the business sector, where we find more South African companies being able to export their products and Chinese companies being invited to more exhibitions within South Africa. We also see that there are more scholars from China entering the country to learn from South African institutions," said Zulu.

"The cooperation between China and South Africa in my field, which is education, is mainly through Confucius Institutes, which I think has been very beneficial to spreading Chinese language knowledge in South Africa, and I think also [in] creating opportunities for South Africans to be able to go to China and to have, I suppose, scholarship opportunities, and to see how cities work there. And I think it would be really good to have more opportunities for the countries and people in those countries to be able to learn from each other," said Mofokeng.

"The collaboration with the Chinese government, it is a good thing for South Africa. We can learn a lot from China, especially here in South Africa. And in Africa, we are seeing [collaboration] in automotive industry, in robotics, the new development in medicine, as well as food packaging," said Marvin Mokgatla, a college student.

South Africans looking forward to more extensive BRICS cooperation

China plays an important and unique role among BRICS countries in leading the Global South and promoting multilateralism, said Gustavo de Carvalho, a senior researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs.

While participating in the BRICS Plus leaders' dialogue during the final day of the Kazan summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the collective rise of the Global South is a distinctive feature of the great transformation across the world.

"We support more Global South countries in joining the cause of BRICS as full members, partner countries or in the 'BRICS Plus' format so that we can combine the great strength of the Global South to build together a community with a shared future for mankind," Xi said.

No matter how the international landscape evolves, said the Chinese president, "we in China will always keep the Global South in our heart, and maintain our roots in the Global South."

In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Gustavo de Carvalho spoke highly of Xi's speech.

"He talks a lot about this fragmented global context and challenges that countries not only China, but also emerging countries and countries from the Global South are facing from this increasing polarization, but also positioning China to a certain degree to be able to further engage with other BRICS members when it comes to specific issues, whether it's in relation to green development, whether it's in in relation to this what he calls this high quality development, type of approach which very much comes together with narratives that we've seen here in Africa, for instance, the idea of not just engaging with trade, but also inserting the continents in a more high value portion of the global supply chains. I think that brings a very important process but also that it allows that diversity and varieties of views that we have within BRICS to still be accommodated in positions, for instance, like the ones that China presented," said Gustavo de Carvalho.

The first-ever summit of an expanded BRICS took place from Tuesday to Thursday in Kazan, the capital city of western Russia's Republic of Tatarstan.

BRICS began with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and has now evolved into an influential international cooperation mechanism with an expanded membership.

Besides the countries that officially joined the BRICS family on Jan 1, 2024, over 30 countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Türkiye and Azerbaijan have either formally applied for or expressed interest in the membership.

China plays key role in pursuing true multilateralism: expert