ABSTRACT
In March 2013, the South African city of Durban hosted the fifth BRICS Summit. It was the first to be held in South Africa and the first that counted on the presence of the African Union. The South African government organized a series of initiatives to highlight the importance of the summit and the BRICS countries. These initiatives included a road show throughout South Africa’s territory, during which different politicians introduced the idea of BRICS to the population, and the publication in the Harvard International Review of a paper signed by President Jacob Zuma in which he claimed that:
The BRICS have developed into a significant catalyst for global change that has captured the imagination of the global community in a comparatively short period of time. In the eThekwini Declaration of 2013, BRICS Leaders clearly articulated their visions for the BRICS to provide solutions to global problems and to champion a new paradigm for international relations (Zuma 2013, 18).
