South African Lawmaker Calls on Pretoria to Withdraw From ICC to Bypass Putin’s Arrest Warrant
11:13 13.04.2023 (Updated: 10:48 03.08.2023)
CC BY 2.0 / Kopano Tlape / Russia-Africa Summit
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JOHANESBURG (Sputnik) - Obed Bapela, a South African lawmaker from the ruling African National Congress (ANC), told Sputnik that he thought his country should withdraw from the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court after it issued a warrant for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
South Africa is holding the rotating presidency of the BRICS group of emerging economies, which also includes Brazil, Russia, India and China. Putin is expected to fly to Durban in South Africa in August for the group’s 15th summit.
"The ANC had taken a decision to withdraw from the court and the instruments had been lodged and the review happened and it was agreed at the 55th Congress of the ANC. I think South Africa has to be withdrawn from the ICC and have called for a review of the policy at the ANC conference coming up in 2025 that this will be a dominant issue of why we have to withdraw," Bapela said.
Bapela, who is deputy minister of public enterprises and a member of the ANC’s subcommittee for international relations, said no country has ever arrested a sitting president and the ANC will not be the first to try.
"In the meantime, we will have to amend the Rome Statutes to domesticate our laws in South Africa… We have 90 days to do it so that by August exemptions are in place, and there are many other parties in parliament who support the ANC on this and other South Africans who want to see President Putin on South African soil," Bapela said.
The Hague-based ICC issued a warrant for the arrest of President Putin and his commissioner for children's rights in March, citing "unlawful transfer" of children from the combat zone. The Kremlin said Russia is not party to the ICC and the court's decision is legally null and void for the country.
On Wednesday, South African President's spokesman Vincent Magwenya said that "we have a spanner in the works in the form of this ICC warrant".
The statement comes as South Africa is set to hold a BRICS summit in August.
"All heads of state would be expected to attend the summit... There will be further engagements, in terms of how that is going to be managed and those engagements are underway. Once they've been concluded, the necessary announcements will be made," Vincent Magwenya noted.
