By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday, filed an application at the High Court, to sought a declaration holding South Africa legally obligated as a signatory of the Rome Statute to comply with the warrant issued against Russia president Vladimir Putin by the ICC.
The move by the DA comes amid pressure on the government to make a decision on the attendance of Putin at the BRICS summit in August, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed during his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
South Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statute and will have a legal obligation to arrest Putin if and when he sets foot in the country.
“Putin is accused by the ICC of being responsible for the war crimes of unlawful deportation of children, and the unlawful transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation,” says the DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach.
“This pre-emptive court action aims to ensure that South Africa upholds its obligations in terms of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and the Implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Act.”
Breytenbach says the country cannot afford another embarrassment, citing the failure to arrest Sudanese leader Omar Al-Bashir in 2015.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) gazetted a notice on Monday providing diplomatic immunity to officials attending the BRICS summit in August.
It says gazetting diplomatic immunities ahead of the BRICS summit in August was standard procedure when hosting international conferences.
In a tweet on Tuesday morning, DIRCO spokesperson Clayson Monyela further said the decision was not unique nor foreign to South Africa, adding that “all countries issue similar immunities” and gave previous examples of when the country gazetted exemptions.
The tweet read: “All countries issue similar immunities. We did this previously when hosting the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17), and African Union (AU) Summits. The exemptions DO NOT override any warrant issued by any international tribunal (like the ICC) against any attendee.”
To avoid arresting Putin and violating the country’s legal obligations to the ICC, an inter-ministerial task team chaired by Deputy President Paul Mashatile was set up in May.