South Africa's ruling party African National Congress (ANC) is insisting on the need to review the country's position on the ICC and introduce new mechanisms to allow foreign leaders to visit the nation without any obstacles imposed by the West, said Nomvula Mokonyane, the ANC's First Deputy Secretary-General, in an exclusive interview with Sputnik Africa.
"Our own life experience has shown that there is no respect for processes and even those that have not actually signed those treaties and agreements, are the ones that were abusing them. So there is a lot of abuse [...]," she said.
According to the politician, when the country became a party to the ICC, it thought the organization would stand for fairness and accountability, that there would be "due process and consultation."
However, she stressed, the international body continues "to conveniently utilize those rules to harass and suppress an alternative view."
She recalled that the party had started the process to review the interaction with the ICC at its last conference. The official hopes that this process will be fruitful and will enable the county to clarify its obligations with regard to the ICC, as well as provide security guarantees for those who intend to visit South Africa.
"We are quite certain that it [...] will culminate into us making sure that there is dignity and guarantee that those who visit South Africa or those who are partners with South Africa and seek to be part of our processes, will not actually be harassed, will not be victimized, will not even be made to think once or twice about being in South Africa," Mokonyane stated.
In particular, Mokonyane referred to a warrant issued by the ICC for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and children's ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova in March. She emphasized that this issue "is something that must be a topic because it has just been done arbitrarily."
Earlier this month, the office of the President of South Africa announced that President Putin would not attend the BRICS summit in person on August 22-24. According to the Kremlin, the Russian leader would join the meeting online.
The ICC accuses Russia, which does not recognize the intergovernmental organization's jurisdiction, of allegedly deporting children from Ukraine. Moscow, for its part, has repeatedly stated that the relocation of children was voluntary and aimed at rescuing them from the combat zone and taking them to safe areas.