The South African government is still working on the issue of Russian President Vladimir Putin's personal participation in the BRICS summit in August, Fikile Mbalula, the secretary general of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, said on Sunday.
"The government is working on the process of whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will come in person to the BRICS summit and we will allow the government to deal with the matter and leave it in the capable hands of the [South African] President [Cyril Ramaphosa]," Mbalula said following the ANC’s National Executive Committee meeting.
As a country, which is a signatory to the International Criminal Court, South Africa has to adhere to the law, the ANC secretary general said, referring to the ICC arrest warrant for Putin. He added, however, that the government "is capable of handling the matter and we leave it in their capable hands."
BRICS unites the world's largest emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
Earlier in the week, Ramaphosa said that the BRICS summit will be held in person. At the same time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Friday that the format of the BRICS summit had not been fully decided upon, and discussions on the issue were still ongoing.
On Wednesday, South African Deputy President Paul Mashatile told a local newspaper that Moscow had turned down South Africa's proposal to send Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the summit instead of Putin.
Mashatile also expressed the hope that the decision on the matter would be taken before the Russia–Africa Summit scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg in late July.