South Africa's government is going to change its national legislation so that it has the right to decide independently whether to detain a person who is wanted by the ICC, said Obed Bapela, a deputy minister in the country's government.
His remarks follow intense debates over whether the nation stands by its invitation to President Putin to take part in the BRICS summit, scheduled for August. The nation repeatedly reiterated its non-aligned position concerning the Russia-Ukraine conflict, refusing to condemn the Russian special military operation.
"In June we'll be submitting the law in parliament," Bapela told the media, adding: "Through the law, South Africa will give itself exemptions of whom to arrest and whom not to arrest on its territory under an ICC warrant."
He further elaborated that the South African authorities are going to send a notice to the ICC, indicating that the country will limit the validity of its arrest warrant on national territory. Under South Africa's present law, the authorities are obliged to arrest the Russian president should he arrive in the country.
The deputy minister also slammed the ICC's double standards, noting that the late Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first democratically elected president and anti-apartheid fighter, would have been frustrated by the war crimes court's actions. He suggested that Mandela would have said that the ICC is biased and inconsistent.
"We never thought that the ICC that we have today would be what it is. They never indicted Tony Blair, they never indicted George W Bush for their killings of Iraq people," he said, referring to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by US and allied forces.
On Tuesday, it became known that the South Africa will grant diplomatic immunity to all participants of two key meetings within the framework of its BRICS chairmanship, including meetings of foreign ministers of the BRICS group and the 'Friends of BRICS' states in Cape Town on 1 and 2 June, as well as the summit scheduled for 22 to 24 August in Johannesburg.
The country's Department of International Relations and Cooperation described the move as a standard procedure "that we do for all international conferences and summits held in South Africa irrespective of the level of participation". However, this immunity does not extend to arrest warrants issued by international organizations, including the ICC, of which South Africa is a member.
The issue of relations between South Africa and the ICC is becoming particularly topical in the light of the approaching BRICS summit, to which the leaders of all participating states are invited. In mid-March, the Hague-based ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Putin and Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, citing the alleged illegal transfer of children from the combat zone in Ukraine to Russia.
Commenting on this decision, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's press secretary, noted that Moscow does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, speaking about the information received from the Hague, said that Russia is not a party to the ICC and its decision is legally null and void for the country.
In April, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa set up an interdepartmental committee to study the country's interaction with the ICC. He stressed that all decisions on the ICC will be made in South Africa even before the summit. According to media reports, the committee is now analyzing the possible inconsistency of the ICC warrant with UN requirements. It is expected that the committee will send its proposals for consideration by South Africa's Cabinet.
Last week, South Africa's largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), filed a lawsuit with a court in the capital province of Gauteng demanding that it issue a ruling to oblige the government to comply with the ICC's demand for Putin's arrest, if such a request were made.
However, South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party has recently announced plans to introduce a parliamentary bill on the withdrawal of South Africa from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which, according to its leader, "has proved to be a biased instrument of global imperialism". The EFF's leader, Julius Malema, vowed to protect Putin if he decides to visit South Africa, highlighting that that the Russian president is a welcome guest in the country, and no one can prevent him from coming to the BRICS summit.