Patrick Bond and Khadija Sharife

The reach of the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) leaders was palpable this week, not just here in Durban where they gathered on Tuesday and Wednesday to plan investments and infrastructure, but everywhere up continent where extraction does extreme damage.

With International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde visiting Tunis today, the stage is set for ideological war over the progress of democratic revolutions.

When African National Congress youth leader Julius Malema recently proposed the mining industry’s partial nationalisation - and then last week asked, quite legitimately, ‘what is the alternative?’ to those in the SA Communist Party (SACP) and Business Leadership South Africa who threw cold water