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Criticism levelled against South Africa’s involvement in the Brics grouping was unjustified and should stop, said the chief executive of the South African Maritime Safety Authority, Tsietsi Mokhele.
His comments came as South Africa prepared to host the fifth Brics summit in Durban tomorrow.
Brics is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Speaking at a pre-Brics maritime trade forum, Mokhele said South Africa had a key role to play in the formation and there was no need to continuously question the value of its membership.
He said the grouping would not have been elevated to the level that it was without South Africa, and that the country had been involved with Brics countries even before it had become a member in 2011.
Addressing maritime experts, Mokhele said South Africa was a maritime state, had strong infrastructure, and its geographic location was a strength as it was the halfway state between East and West, and everything Africa traded was done via the oceans.
“We remain relevant as the gateway to Africa,” he said.
However, unlike the other Brics countries, South Africa did not own any cargo vessels, and ships along its coast were foreign-registered and staffed by foreign crew.
Transport Minister Dikobe Ben Martins said 2013 had been declared the “maritime year” and the focus was on improving the industry which was at a “nascent level”. He said there was greater potential to develop it as in the past it had always been a “ Cinderella” industry.
Meanwhile Cosatu general secretary Zwelizima Vavi called for industrialisation to tackle inequality, unemployment and poverty in South Africa.
“We have to stop the processes of de-industrialisation. We’ve got to ensure that the trade relations that are mutually beneficial can ensure industrialisation in South Africa,” he said.
The National Development Plan did not see industrialisation as the core of South Africa’s economic programme.
“In fact, it invested a lesser contribution by the manufacturing sector and therefore industrialisation in its target to drive unemployment to 6 percent by 2030,” said Vavi.
“That is a very critical problem because it then says the economy must continue to be service-orientated – meaning that all South Africa is going to be about is to buy goods that are already processed and produced by other countries and will be about tourism, retail and all of that.”
Every successful industrialised nation in the world started by a painful process of building the manufacturing sector of the economy to be industrialised, Vavi said.
Vavi said that the Brics summit should allow the trade unions to take part in the discussions. – The Mecury
