South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa says he will ensure that Africa’s voice is heard when he meet with his Brics bloc counterparts.
South Africa is set to chair the BRICS bloc from this year, taking over from China and Ramaphosa is bent on advancing the African agenda.
“When we chair Brics this year, having taken over from China, we are going to be advancing the African agenda and when we hold Brics, we are going to invite various African countries to come to be the outreach part of Brics, like we did the last time,” he said.
Ramaphosa was speaking to the media after a wreath-laying ceremony on the gravesite of late former ANC president Zaccheus Mahabane in Kroonstad, Free State.
He was responding to a question relating to SA assuming the 2023 presidency in Brics after taking over from China. Brics held its first summit in 2009, with SA joining the following year. The bloc has generally been seen as an alternative to the dominance of the western economies.
In October Ramaphosa indicated that Saudi Arabia and many other countries had a keen interest in joining the bloc. This matter will be up for consideration when the countries meet at the summit this year.
According to an SABC report, SA assumes the leadership role under the theme of — Brics and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism.
Meanwhile Ramaphosa said the ANC was “inherently, deeply and extensively Pan-Africanist.”
“We believe that this is Africa’s century and therefore even Brics must embrace that, and even other forums like G20 and G7 must embrace that. We are inherently and will always be Pan-Africans.
“When many of our leaders such as Nelson Mandela and many others trained to embark on an arms struggle, they did not go to any other continent, they went to Africa and trained on the African continent. They left their boots in various parts of Africa.
“Our DNA is Africa. We are deeply African and Pan-Africanists and have always been, and even as we are elevated as a country to various international forums we always advocate the African story.”
He said that at times SA spoke more about the continent than itself, sometimes to its disadvantage “because we really see ourselves as Africans first, and then SA.”
During the pandemic, Ramaphosa said SA made sure that Africa was put on the international map
: “Africa was the only continent that had a coherent strategy on Covid-19 and that was largely because of the leadership that our country provided, which is recognised by the entire continent.”
