South Africa, like many African countries is looking for condition-free assistance from Asian giants like China and India

The ANC’s Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe, has thrown down the gauntlet to South Africa’s relations with so-called developed Western countries, including the USA and the Eurozone, saying in an interview,

“Western investors have to realise South Africa does not need their money since it can turn increasingly to fellow BRICS members India and China to fund its economic development.”

Mantashe continued,

“Sometimes, when you deal with the IMF or World Bank, or anything, they feel that you must stop thinking because they have money and they will tell you what to do with the money. As long as that is the case, you are going to see the fast growth of the ‘Look East’ policy,” he said.

Many African governments are looking to China, chief among alternative global investment and assistance reserves, for support, principally due to China’s business-first policy of non-interference in the target country’s political and economic affairs. In the past, global institutions have been heavy-handed in placing political and economic prescriptions on the loans and investment they offer to developing states, like practically every one in Africa, and increasingly, the developing world is tired of this interference.

China is South Africa’s largest trade partner, and as of 2009, it was the continent’s fifth largest resource for foreign investment- a position it is capitalising on in the wake of financial crises in traditionally strong American and European investment flows.

Mantashe and other top ANC officials have made several trips to China in recent years to see how Beijing uses state-owned industry to power its economy.

“The BRICS development bank is going to be a reality and that is where we look for money and funding because developing economies must be allowed to grow and develop,” he told Reuters.

At the recent BRICS summit in Delhi, India, the five BRICS members sought consensus on creating an alternative, developing-world focused development bank, much-like the IMF or World Bank. This bank would principally be funded by China and India, and would offer Yuan-Renminbi based assistance to developing countries tired of international prescription on their financial affairs and condition-laden loans from the West.

[Source: Polity, News 24]