Delivering the annual lecture to celebrate the birthday of Nelson Mandela here last evening, Sisulu said it is the collective responsibility of all those citizens in the globe to contribute to ease the crisis.
"Every square inch of this world belongs to me. It is the collective responsibility of us all to contribute. The global slowdown has given a chance for smaller economies to come at centre stage and take control.
"BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) to that effect can be utilised as a platform to address the concerns of our and the world," he said.
Talking about India and South Africa, he said both the countries share a rich collective history and are tied with the umbilical cord.
"While Mahatma Gandhi's early life was heavily influenced from his times in tumultuous South Africa, it was Nelson Mandela in the 1990s, who after being released from 27 hard years in prison followed Gandhi's methods and united South Africa as a single nation," Sisulu said.
He said that it was the leadership of Mandela which in 1994 brought the entire nation together and the reconciliation was achieved through "constant consultations" which brought disparate groups together and irrespective of "class, colour and creed" all stood united.
That is from where the country got its moniker Rainbow nation, he said.
Hailing India for its democracy and robust institutions, Sisulu said the "common values and interests of the two nation has shaped the strategic and bilateral ties."