MANDLA MANDELA
A new wave of hope has dawned upon the world. With the conclusion of the 15th BRICS Summit, we have taken a firm step forward towards our goal of a more just, multipolar world.
There are many detractors locally and globally who find it hard to countenance that such a reconfiguration is even possible. There are even those who are hell-bent on seeing it fail or falter. There are no prizes for guessing whose interests they represent.
Stranger things have happened before September, and as spring looms on the horizon we take great encouragement from the gathering of the BRICS partners and the 22 other invited nations who have indicated their willingness to work with us.
This is no spring clean as many of our participating nations, including South Africa, have immense domestic challenges including unemployment, gross inequality and gripping poverty.
What is certain, and the silk thread that binds us, is our coalescence around creating a more just global dispensation and exploring the economic potential that such a collective offers and the human development that it can potentially unleash.
At the centre of this unfolding process lies much work which must still be done to determine alternatives to the prevailing financial architecture and the merits of using local and alternative currencies.
The Bretton Woods institutions will not magically disappear, but knowing that alternatives are being explored provides some comfort and reassurance for nations that despite being resource-rich remain debt-ridden and beholden to the development agenda of the West and the noose of perpetual economic bondage.
In this context the clear vision of Ms Dilma Rousseff as the president of the New Development Bank on the role that the bank should play in support of infrastructure and sustainable development in Africa and the Global South is refreshing and cause for hope and jubilation.
While we are elated by the proceedings of the 15th BRICS Summit, unless this translates into meaningful changes in the lives and livelihoods of ordinary women and men for whom grinding poverty has become a burden too great to bear, it matters little.
Thomas Sankara reminded us that we cannot feed people policies and promises. People want bread, salt and water; they want to see tangible and sustainable changes in their own lives.
There are so many people living in abject poverty in the world and more than 60% of them live in Africa and the Global South. Africa, despite its huge mineral wealth and abundant resources remains shackled and manacled and her people suffer under the triple burden of hunger, poverty and loss of hope.
This is untenable and is as much a failure of the prevailing economic system in the world as it is a failure of the leadership to whom we have entrusted our future and the future of our children. It is no surprise that there is a rising grassroots consciousness and awareness among people of the Global South saying enough is enough.
Poverty knows no colour or boundaries and in quite a bizarre way our destinies are tied together. We must work together to find solutions. That is what BRICS Plus offers us as denizens of Africa and the larger Global South.
The three big challenges we must address as BRICS are global conflict, global warming, and poverty and food security; these are paramount and cannot be brushed under the carpet. The ongoing war talk by the US and its military exercises in the South China Seas are provocative and pose a threat to world peace. We must continue to push for a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine and caution against Nato’s expansionist ambitions that threaten our very existence.
India's war on its non-Hindu minorities is also cause for extreme concern as a cataclysmic genocide looms. Its disregard for international law and denial of the right to self-determination under international law in annexed Kashmir cannot go unchallenged.
For a nation that waged a bitter struggle against British colonialism and occupation, it is hard to fathom how India could become a bed-partner with apartheid Israel. Surely, it must learn from the South African experience in which it gallantly supported the liberation movement, that having Israel as a bedfellow places it on the wrong side of history.
The call for reform of the UN and especially the UN Security Council, is not just a policy position. It is rooted in the bitter experience of Palestine, Western Sahara and Kashmir, among others. Countless resolutions have made no tangible difference and have been deliberately ignored by member states.
On the contrary, the UN and its agencies have at times been badgered into being a vanguard for the foreign policy prerogatives of the West. The arrest warrant for Russian President Valdimir Putin is a case in point, while 75 years of systemic genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Israel passes like water off a duck’s back. It's a veritable case of Yeats’s posit that “the centre cannot hold".
BRICS Plus seeks not to rubbish the institutions of multilateralism, but rather seeks to make it more inclusive and to advocate for upholding international law, including the purposes and principles enshrined in the UN Charter.
BRICS Plus harks back to a time when the Non-Aligned Movement was a formidable force in global politics. We know from our experience in the anti-apartheid Struggle the value of having non-aligned partners such as Ireland, Indonesia, Pakistan, Venezuela, Algeria, Ethiopia and others in our corner during. We must as a collective assert our commitment to the peaceful resolution of differences and disputes through dialogue and inclusive consultation.
We are excited to have another BRICS partner from Latin America, especially at a time when the progressive forces of the left are on the ascendancy. The Argentinian republic therefore has a pivotal role to play in building a broad global consensus that enjoys the support of Latin America and embraces the role of the Global South.
South Africa leverages its status in BRICS Plus to ensure that the entire continent of Africa benefits from the expanded bloc. This is now further strengthened through the Arab republic of Egypt, and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia joining as partners in BRICS Plus. This holds much promise for Africa in terms of new investment and development potential.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates hold substantial oil and gas resources. This is a key factor in their inclusion and a positive development for BRICS. It will undoubtedly be a cause of major concern to the latter's former allies in the West but a boon for the BRICS Plus countries, especially the African continent.
The deliberations in the Africa Outreach and BRICS Plus Dialogue provided an encouraging note to what can be achieved. It also highlighted the critical importance of inclusivity and developing a practical roadmap for working together in our quest for a better and more just world. Unless we give meaning to this and do the hard work that lies ahead, this will all be an exercise in futility.
In the context of the campaign to end global hunger and poverty, the founding father of our democracy, then president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, reminded us that: "Sometimes, it falls on a generation to be great. We can be that generation!"
Let us heed the call, and regardless of how many challenges BRICS Plus faces at its inception, we are duty-bound to support it and give meaning to its ambitious programme. Perhaps then, we can live in peace and prosperity and enjoy what it means to be truly one human family.
Mandla Mandela is the Chief of Mvezo and former president Nelson Mandela’s grandson.
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