Clear criteria for expanding BRICS urged

This could be achieved through agriculture, education, empowerment of people, infrastructure development, health and being able to communicate among themselves, he said."We need to ... look at other areas that bring these countries together, like having an understanding on climate change, green financing and the environment."

Monyae said BRICS countries should invest in data technology.

"There is a new form of colonialism and imperialism that comes with high-tech, where all our data is stored in California. We have no access to buy back our own data. We need to lessen the dominance of one power. We need to have BRICS collaborating on these core new areas of development focusing on science and technology," he said.

Mthembu said there is a need for the BRICS summit to reinvigorate and add momentum to the development agenda, noting that the UN's 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development has been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Ukraine crisis.

"They should come up with very concrete measures, especially that are related to Africa, like development of regional value chains, investing in Africa's manufacturing capacity, strengthening the trade agenda within BRICS and furthering economic cooperation."

Ndumiso Mlilo in South Africa contributed to this story.