Anil Sooklal and officials from the department of foreign affairs were addressing journalists in the main commercial city of Johannesburg, a day after South Africa confirmed Russia's Vladimir Putin would not attend the BRICS summit due to take place on August 22-24.
The question of how far and fast to expand the club -centered around Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa- is top of the agenda at the summit of nations seeking to offset to the perceived hegemony of the US-led West in global affairs, Reuters reported.
Aside from the 22 countries that had formally asked to join, Sooklal said there was "an equal number of countries that have informally expressed interest in becoming BRICS members ... (including) all the major global south countries."
South African officials want BRICS to become a champion of the developing world, and Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Comoros, Gabon, and Kazakhstan have all expressed interest.