beyondbrics

By Martyn Davies of Frontier Advisory

The FIFA World Cup being held in South Africa that begins today evokes the international honeymoon that our country enjoyed after the first racially inclusive democratic elections that were held in April 1994.

Could we have leveraged the “honeymoon” better? Perhaps. Whilst South Africa has re-integrated into the global community of nations, it has not integrated domestically. Economic divisions between South Africans have never been starker. Our country grapples with providing opportunity for the majority of its citizens. The term developmental state – so often bandied about in government circles – has yet to become a reality providing for its needy and impatient citizens. But nevertheless, we are a leading emerging market economy.

The South African government and big business remain desperately disappointed not to have been included in Goldman Sachs’ BRIC ranking of leading emerging markets. Hosting a successful World Cup may force a re-consideration, at least from the traditional world, of our status in the pecking order of developing economies. New investors from the emerging world, however, already regard it as a first tier emerging market.

Being the powerhouse economy of the region, we project ourselves as the springboard for investors into Africa. The World Cup is not only ours but the region’s. The Southern African Development Community – a grouping of 15 states – has a population of over 250 million people. We are bigger than Brazil, bigger than Indonesia.  Some of our neighboring countries probably do not deserve the “FIFA dividend” but regardless, we feel we deserve greater global attention, and the World Cup, at least for a month, is giving it to us.

The only disappointment will be Nelson Mandela’s absence from the World Cup’s opening ceremony due a family bereavement. But at least the memory of Mandela’s leadership takes us back to a time when we believed in the rainbow nation before successive and divisive politicians destroyed that dream for us South Africans. South Africa will never realize its full potential on the global stage if it remains so internally divided. A plea from a patriotic South African to our politicians – please do not undermine the national and racial cohesion that is being brought about by the World Cup to South Africa. Rather, give us an inclusive vision for the country way beyond 2010.  The FIFA World Cup has the potential to serve as the catalyst for the revival of our once hoped-for rainbow nation.

So where are we headed after the finals on July 11? We will not win the World Cup but we will have won the world’s admiration – that a small African country with big ambitions rose above its internal differences and played host to the world. We will never be a China or an India. But with assiduous leadership and our tenacious people, South Africa will differentiate itself as a winning African economy.

Martyn Davies is CEO of Frontier Advisory, a Faculty Member at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa and was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010

mdavies@frontieradvisory.com