New BRICS a threat to democracy…

BRICS has taken a “dangerous political direction” with the admittance of new members like Iran and Saudi Arabia. That is the view of the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) Shadow Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Emma Louise Powell. She speaks to BizNews following the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa today (Thursday 24 August) that BRICS has decided to invite the Argentine Republic, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to become full members. Powell says, until this week, the BRICS grouping has been “rather innocuous”, but given the inclusion of countries like Iran and Saudi, she thinks that BRICS is headed in “a rather dangerous political direction that does not serve South Africa's economic security or democratic interests”.  That means that DA “would certainly make representations towards reviewing our membership when the time came”. - Chris Steyn