South Africa joined the Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) group of emerging economies in 2010. The group subsequently
became known as BRICS. The group hosts summits to seek common ground on areas of importance and convergence for
these major economies. This paper is descriptive and analytic in nature, providing background on economic relations and
inequalities existing between the BRICS countries. It also provides details of the economic deliberations and partnerships
agreed upon and concluded at the 5th BRICS Summit held in Durban South Africa. The research methodology applied to
collect data and information about this topic is qualitative in nature, analysis content published about the summit in mass and
online media and also a semiotic analysis of interviews broadcast on national television where government and business
officials involved with BRICS commented on and abou the summit. These processes involve the analyses of secondary as a
form of data collection. Data analysis involved identification of discussion themes raised by these officials in the data gathered,
a discussion and commentary on the issues raised, and an interpretation of these issues by making use of international
relations theories. This paper also compares the South African economic indicators and the status of the country to those of the
other BRICS nations.