- Thursday, April 18, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE coronavirus crisis notwithstanding, India and South Africa have ramped up their ties – political and trade – in 2021. The crisis in fact gave both the democracies an opportunity to extend cooperation in fighting the deadly pandemic.
Both nations have witnessed devastating pandemic waves in this year. While India had a deadly second wave in April and May in which several thousands were killed, South Africa started and ended 2021 with serious Covid-19 challenges with the pandemic looking set to dominate 2022, the third straight year.
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In January, South Africa was in the midst of its second wave and as the year neared its conclusion, the country got hit by a fourth wave following the discovery of the new Omicron variant of the virus, which is highly transmissible, in November.
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In February, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi had a telephonic talk with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa in which they discussed the continuing challenges that the pandemic has posed.
The two leaders also talked about possibilities of collaboration between their respective nations on various international platforms to facilitate access and affordability of vaccines and other medicines.
Modi told Ramaphosa (he also wished for his speedy recovery recently after he tested positive) that India’s significant productive capacity for pharmaceuticals and vaccines would continue to serve the requirements of all countries, including those in Africa.
A week before the two leaders spoke, vaccines made in India were flown to South Africa with Ramaphosa himself receiving the consignment of doses.
Days before he got infected, Ramaphosa asked scientists of the BRICS group that includes both India and South Africa to work together in developing solutions for the pandemic.
“The collaboration among BRICS countries is intended to broaden our knowledge of the COVID-19 virus not only for the benefit of member countries but for the global community more broadly,” Ramaphosa said.
The South African president said in his State of the Nation address in February that India was one of the countries that South Africa was looking up to as it sought to import skills and boost tourism in the wake of the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.
The economic slump caused by the pandemic, however, failed to deter Indian businesses from increasing their production and expanding commercial presence in the African nation.
India was the top country of origin for vehicle imports to the African country despite long Covid-induced lockdowns and overall slump in sales of vehicles in 2020, the 2021 Automotive Export Manual report unveiled by the Automotive Industry Export Council said.
ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA), a subsidiary of London-based Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal’s Global steel giant ArcelorMittal, bounced back from a loss of 632 million rands (£30 million) in 2019 into a profit of 37 million rands (£1.7 million) for the previous fiscal year.
Indian automaker Mahindra also entrenched its position in the South African market with a huge investment in skills training in southern Africa by opening a bigger training centre, effectively increasing its capacity by two times. The company also set up a new national parts warehouse larger than its old facility.
“South Africa is the regional hub for Mahindra and the brand’s second home outside of India. We will continue to support all levels of skill development to support the growing demand for Mahindra vehicles and the planned expansion on the continent,” Rajesh Gupta, chief executive officer of Mahindra South Africa said.
Vedanta Zinc International started a new iron-ore product line by ramping up iron ore production at its Black Mountain Mine (BMM) operations in Aggeneys in the Northern Cape province of South Africa.
Besides their pandemic-time cooperation, South Africa also remained witness to the celebrations of India’s 75th Independence Day this year, despite the lockdown restrictions. Indian missions across South Africa launched scaled-down celebrations of the occasion.
Also during the violence and looting that broke out in parts of South Africa in July in the wake of the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma, Ela Gandhi, the South Africa-based grand-daughter of Mahatma Gandhi, urged India to help South Africa in its effort to rebuild the nation.
Also in the wake of local government elections in South Africa, Indian missions in Pretoria and Johannesburg organised a seminar titled ‘Story of World’s Largest Democracy’s Elections’ to laud the electoral process in India, a country of more than 1.3 billion people.
Glen Mashinini, the chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa, lauded the work of the Election Commission of India (ECI) as an example for the entire world.
“The ECI provides the fountain of knowledge, understanding, and experience for all of us as electoral management bodies that are serving throughout the world,” Mashinini said.
