Modern Mining October 2023

COLUMNIST

What does a BRICS+6 mean for South Africa? By Dr Ross Harvey, director of research and programmes at Good Governance Africa (GGA) O n 24 August, the latest BRICS summit con cluded in Johannesburg. The BRIC acronym was originally coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill in 2001. Original mem was – and remains – to ensure more of a voice for emerging economies in a US-dominated world; a voice in governing the institutions that affect the whole world. Earlier this year, for instance, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva demanded to know why the BRICS countries were hinged to the US dollar and strongly suggested a move towards trading in countries’ home currencies instead.

ber countries developed a formal bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, and China in 2008 on the side lines of a G8 meeting. Russia was subsequently expelled from the G8 after its invasion of Crimea in 2014. South Africa was invited to join BRICs in 2010 and formally ingratiated by 2011. In a 2017 piece for the Council on Foreign Relations, Alyssa Ayres indicated that the group encapsulated the rise of emerging markets but that it was “less clear whether this grouping also provides durable common inter ests for a multilateral organisation, especially given the vast economic differences among the five”. Ayres went on to note that the political differences between members were also sharp. By 2017, the bloc could claim some significant achievements, including its own institutions such as the New Development Bank. The original impetus

Dr Ross Harvey, director of research and programmes at GGA.

Michael Pettis, writing in Foreign Affairs , con curred that there is a downside to a dominant US dollar. Nonetheless, “adopting an alternative global reserve currency will not necessarily benefit surplus countries such as Brazil. Rather, it will force them to confront the reasons for their surpluses – per sistently weak domestic demand based on a very unequal distribution of domestic income – and address them by cutting back on production and redistributing income.” Jim O’Neill himself, writing recently for Chatham House, indicated similar con cerns and wrote that what the world needs instead of an expanded BRICS is “a resurrected G20, which already includes all the same key play ers, plus others…”

South Africa must guard against the temptations associated with quick extraction by irresponsible partners.

Aside from the economic difficulties of moving away from a dollar-domi nated world, the political differences between the bloc are glaring. This BRICS conference was marred in advance for South Africa as to whether the government would have the cour age to arrest Vladimir Putin, the Russian dictator, if he attended the conference in person. South Africa remains a sig natory to the Rome Statute, which governs the International Criminal Court (ICC), despite comments from some quarters about its illegitimacy. The ICC has issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest, given evidence of war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine. South Africa failed to arrest Al Bashir, another wanted war criminal, back in 2015. In the end, after careful diplomatic manoeuvring, Putin stayed at home. The BRICS countries concluded the August summit by formally admitting Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to join the group from the begin ning of 2024. This raises a question,

40  MODERN MINING  October 2023