At the end of August, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced one of the key outcomes of a BRICS summit in Johannesburg: the decision to invite six new members to the club.
This, he said, would be only the first phase of an expansion - as a long list of other countries submitted their applications.
Five of those countries are still set to become part of BRICS on 1 January 2024, but Argentina has had a change of heart along with a change in government, and just cannot see the point anymore.