The interministerial committee (IMC) tasked with considering government’s options regarding an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant of arrest for Russian president Vladimir Putin is expected to hold its first meeting soon.
This is according to the ANC’s international relations subcommittee chair Obed Bapela.
The committee is led by Deputy President Paul Mashatile.
“I am aware they will be meeting this coming week and we are going to submit to the ANC deployees in government our finalised document on the work that has been done thus far (on the matter) so we can have one streamlined, final decision,” he said.
TimesLIVE Premium understands a meeting was scheduled to take place on Tuesday at Tuynhuys in Cape Town, but was moved to next week because of outstanding legal opinion.
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said Mashatile was preparing for the Russia intergovernmental committee on trade and economic co-operation (ITEC).
“The issue of the warrant has been included in the process. The IMC on our hosting of the Brics Summit is chaired by [department of international relations and co-operation] minister Naledi Pandor,” he said.
Magwenya added that all heads of state have expressed their intention and desire to attend the summit. “We have a slight challenge with respect to Russia which we hope will be resolved by the date of the summit,” he said, adding that President Cyril Ramaphosa is “fairly comfortable” the matter will be resolved.
Bapela, who led a working visit with the United Russia Party between March 30 and April 2, told TimesLIVE Premium that arresting Putin “will not achieve peace” and that the ruling party is doing all it can to ensure this does not happen on its watch.
This will include amending the Rome Statute to “domesticate” it.
Communication on the matter, which was discussed at length during the party’s recent national executive committee (NEC) meeting, caused confusion last week when the ANC and its president, Ramaphosa, said the country was pulling out of the ICC. Both later backtracked, saying South Africa will remain a signatory to the court.
Bapela said: “When we domesticate, we take it as is and therefore there is an obligation on us to arrest anyone when an arrest warrant is issued, including [by] the court that has taken a verdict against us for not arresting [former Sudanese president Omar] al-Bashir. The ruling is a precedent in law.
“The other element, maybe, is for parliament to ... amend the Rome Statute and domesticate it ... but those matters are still being looked at hence, there is no finality on the matter,” he said.
Last month's controversial ICC decision to have Putin arrested on South African soil when he attends the 15th Brics Summit in August has put the country in a predicament and strained relations with the West, forcing Ramaphosa to dispatch a special envoy to the US to further explain South Africa's neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine war.
Because this country is a signatory to the Rome Statute, it has to arrest Putin.
This is not the first time the court has put pressure on South Africa to arrest a head of state. In 2015 the country did not comply with and ICC request to arrest Al-Bashir when he was in the country.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Times reported at the weekend that the government and its Russian counterparts are engaged in high-level talks that could see Putin avoid travelling to South Africa to avert diplomatic fallout over the arrest warrant.
The Sunday Times learnt that the department of international relations and co-operation (Dirco) has legal opinion which says the country cannot legally turn a blind eye to it.
The opinion states that the Supreme Court of Appeal's (SCA) judgment in the Al-Bashir matter created a precedent and compels South Africa to arrest a head of state when asked by the ICC to do so.
The Sunday Times understands the ICC has not yet approached South Africa to arrest Putin.
“There is a general point ... which is there is no country in the world that has ever arrested a sitting president. It was difficult with al-Bashir and it is going to be more difficult [with] Putin.
“The difference between Al-Bashir and Putin is that Al-Bashir was already issued with a warrant of arrest when he was already in the country and already participating in the African Union. When the arrest was issued, certain things happened and he left, and the courts sat on the matter and found us guilty.”
This led to the ANC wanting to withdraw from the ICC due to its “biasness because some American leaders committed crimes and genocide in Iraq (George Bush) and the killing of (Libyan leader Muammar) al-Gaddafi. Barack Obama and Tony Blair were also part of those leaders.
“We then said the ICC is biased and the US said it will not be a member. So did Russia and China. The three big powers are not members of the ICC. America has committed atrocities, but has not been punished. Here comes Putin and now they are coming for him, and that has angered a number of people in South Africa and all over ... that this court is biased.
“The ANC, unfortunately or fortunately, reviewed and rescinded its decision to withdraw from the ICC at its conference last year. Therefore, the ANC is back in the ICC, it never withdrew, the instruments to withdraw did not succeed, so the decision is we remain there.”
Bapela said the party rethought its decision due to a solidarity pledge with Palestine, among other countries.
“Brics is seen as a threat to the West and they just want to disrupt this meeting and therefore we are studying this environment,” he said.
The decision to withdraw from the ICC was discussed as a last option during the NEC meeting, Bapela added.
“We need South Africans to be a bit patient because this is a very complex matter and all angles must be looked at.”
Preparations for the Brics Summit are well under way, with “the base that all members will be there, led by their heads of state”.
“No-one said we shouldn’t be part of Brics, no-one is fighting Brics, but obviously they are threatened by it, without saying leave Brics or dismantle it.
“They don’t want to come out stupidly where they force countries, so they will use sanctions and the war with Russia, and wherever there is an instrument that says arrest Putin, they will throw it to that country that is the host.
“We and India are signatories of the ICC, but if Russia, Brazil or China was hosting there would not be this noise. [They] are trying to destabilise our preparations for the meeting and we are refusing.
“We will have Brics. It will be attended and circumstances obviously weighed from time to time. That is why the government is now working on other modalities that we can look at as loopholes in the law on this warrant of arrest by the ICC,” said Bapela.
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