How SA stacks up against this Bric

Just 20 years ago, Brazil was known for hyperinflation and debt, poverty and beaches, but the biggest country in South America is now a key player in the global economy, recognised as a country with strong growth and a strong currency, oil - and those beaches.

In recent years, with the south-south story becoming more relevant, South Africans started to compare Brazil to South Africa, despite obvious differences in size, wealth and population.

The two countries have several interesting similarities that go beyond the fact that both are the economic powerhouses on their respective continents, have problems with currency appreciation and have been free from oppressive regimes for about 20 years. But there are also distinct differences.

Driving around Rio de Janeiro, a former capital of Brazil which some compare to Durban or Cape Town, one sees the same stark contrast between rich and poor as in South Africa. The shantytowns along the hills surrounding Rio de Janeiro have their origins in the settlements of African slaves in the 1700s. While most people still refer to these areas as slums or favelas, which, according to a tour guide, means "weed that grows anywhere", the more politically correct term nowadays is "communities", just like squatter camps in South Africa are euphemised as "informal settlements".

But Brazil has made some strides in alleviating poverty and tackling inequality.

According to Fernando Pimentel Puga, deputy director of economic research at the Brazilian development bank BNDES, 28.1% of the population lived below the poverty line in 2003 when former president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, came into power. That was reduced to 16.1% by 2008.

Brazil's Gini coefficient, a way of measuring income inequality, has come down from more than 0.60 in 1990 to about 0.54 in 2009. Between 1994 and 2005 South Africa's Gini coefficient rose from 0.59 to 0.65, indicating increasing inequality.

Brazil's version of social grants, the so-called Bolsa Familia and its predecessors, played a major role in the reduction of poverty, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

One big difference between the Bolsa Familia and South Africa's social grants is that the Brazilian cash transfer is conditional on children attending school and getting health checkups.

But despite access to education improving markedly in the last two decades, Brazil also faces challenges with regard to the quality of education and high drop-out rates in secondary education.

According to the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, student performance in Brazil remains significantly below the OECD country average. High school enrolment is only about 70% of any given cohort.

Corruption in government is also a problem in Brazil. On October 12, a public holiday, about 20000 protesters reportedly marched in the streets of the capital Brasília, with 2000 more marching along the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro armed with green and yellow brooms in a call to clean out corrupt officials. In contrast to many protest marches in South Africa, the one in Rio de Janeiro was very slow and peaceful, and there was no dancing or singing.

The OECD said in a recent integrity review of Brazil that progress has been made in reforming the public sector to prevent corruption, but there remains some work.

Only last week the Brazilian sports minister, Orlando Silva, resigned over a corruption scandal. According to Reuters he is the sixth minister to step down this year and the fifth to be forced out over ethics breaches.

This raised even more concern about Brazil's preparations for the 2014 Soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.

In Rio de Janeiro, one of the 12 World Cup host cities and the host of the Olympics, very little can be seen in terms of infrastructure improvements, apart from the major upgrade of the Maracanã stadium.

Like some the of naysayers before South Africa's World Cup, a financial journalist at O Globo in São Paulo said she does not see Brazil being ready in time for the World Cup, and called the building and renovating of stadiums a giant waste of money.

Crime levels are another challenge in Brazil, particularly with the prospect of the two sporting events.

While the police have been making progress in the battle against drug-related violence in some areas, muggings are common in many places.

Hotel guests along the beaches of Rio de Janeiro are warned to not walk around with valuables, and the tour guides who issue these warnings seem to accept the muggings as normal.

On an academic tour last month, two MBA students from the University of Pretoria's Gordon Institute of Business Science were brazenly held at knife-point by two pre-teens on a beach filled with people, in broad daylight, and robbed of cameras and sunglasses. According to one of the students, none of the bystanders even batted an eye.

In terms of nation-building and unity, Brazil has one big advantage over South Africa. Its 192-million citizens of different descent speak one language: Portuguese.

The language is so dominant that English takes a very distant back seat, making it difficult for a foreigner to ask for directions or buy anything complicated in a shop or restaurant.

The only English newspapers at the Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo were week-old editions of The New York Times and The Washington Post at the hefty price of 25 real, or almost R115, which means it is at least cheaper and easier for English-speakers to read and find their way in South Africa.

• Vollgraaff visited Brazil as a guest of the Gordon Institute of Business Science