Johannesburg - Building relationships with countries that see African countries as equals and true partners is vital to putting future generations on a path to a brighter trajectory.
“Whether people like it or not, BRICS is the future, and it's going to change global politics for a very long time,” said Tahir Maepa, from the Public Service and Commercial Union of South Africa.
Maepa was attending the BRICS Media Forum at the Houghton Hotel in Johannesburg, where leading media houses from member states gathered for the 6th BRICS Media Forum.
With the BRICS Summit marred by a lot of negativity, Maepa said it was important for the media to send out information about what BRICS sought to achieve.
“We must not be oblivious to the fact that there are too many forces at play, and those who are for BRICS are the ones that need to sell that narrative even amongst South Africans.”
This was as he highlighted that there were those who still questioned why South Africa needed to be part of BRICS and the benefits thereof.
Maepa said the reason for that was because of the narrative from certain media groups that were anti-BRICS, even though African countries had been in the same pot with the West for many years and had only plunged the continent and taken more than what they had given.
“We need to start building relationships with people who see us as equals and true partners, which we were not getting from the West. We need to be looking into the East, as they came from the same colonial environment as we have, but they managed to get themselves out of that situation.”
He added: “Unfortunately, we don’t have the capacity to do it; therefore, we need to establish relationships with such countries, learn from them, and avoid having to start everything from scratch because they already have the blueprint.”
The forum serves as the lead-up to the BRICS Summit taking place in Johannesburg from August 22 to 24.
Leading media outlets from the five member states — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — have gathered to discuss the role media outlets play in fostering understanding and facilitating dialogue between the member states.
The Star