JOHANNESBURG—Senior members of the South African government have told The Epoch Times they are working hard to make it possible for Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit the country, free of concern about being arrested.
Putin is supposed to attend the summit of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries in Cape Town in early August. Analysts see the meeting as hugely significant, given that possible expansion of the organization is on the agenda.
Several Middle Eastern nations, including Iran, have expressed interest in joining the BRICS alliance, with many observers considering an expanded BRICS to be the possible beginning of a “new world economic order.”
Putin himself has said it’s time for Africa, Asia and Latin America to stop using the American dollar for trade and debt repayments and to rather use the yuan, and has accused Washington of “weaponizing” the dollar by imposing sanctions on Russia and its allies.
But Putin’s attendance of the BRICS gathering has been complicated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing a warrant of arrest for him for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
It’s the first time the global court has circulated a warrant for a leader of one of the five permanent UN Security Council members.
As a signatory to the Rome Statute—the charter that established the ICC in 2002—South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) administration is obliged by law to enforce the warrant.
But many in the governing party are Putin admirers, often referring to him as a “friend,” and often visiting Moscow on personal invitations from the Russian leader.
Most of the ANC’s current top leadership received education and military training in the former Soviet Union during the apartheid era.
The ANC has consistently refused to condemn the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, accusing Western countries of “hypocrisy” by raising their voices against Putin’s actions in Eastern Europe, but supporting the U.S. invasion of “sovereign” Iraq in 2003, for example.
South Africa’s Minister of International Relations, Naledi Pandor, has also criticized the ICC for supposedly only targeting alleged war criminals “perceived as anti-Western,” while ignoring the alleged crimes of President George W. Bush in the Middle East, for example.
On April 25, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced South Africa was withdrawing its membership of the ICC “because of the manner in which the ICC has been seen to be dealing with these types of problems.”
But, a few hours later, his office retracted his statement.
A member of the ANC’s National Executive Committee, Obed Bapela, told The Epoch Times instead of leaving the ICC, the government “is in the process of amending the ICC laws contained in South Africa’s constitution. These laws need to be domesticated so that they are in the best interests of our country.”
The ANC apparently decided to follow this route when it realized that even if South Africa took the decision to leave the ICC, it would still be bound by its membership obligations, including executing arrest warrants, for 12 months following its notification of withdrawal.
ANC insiders told The Epoch Times the organization would amend domestic ICC laws so that they exempted sitting heads of state from arrest on South African soil.
“Lots of countries have taken decisions with regard to the ICC that are in defense of their own interests,” said Bapela.
“When someone tried to charge [former UK Prime Minister] Tony Blair for crimes of aggression against Iraq, the British High Court refused to recognize the validity of the charges.”
In 2017, Britain’s High Court said the ICC’s “crime of aggression” was not on UK statute books. This after former Iraqi general, Abdulwaheed al-Rabbat, had attempted to institute a private war crimes prosecution against Blair, using the ICC’s law as a basis.
The crime of aggression is the fourth crime falling within the ICC’s jurisdiction. The ICC charter defines it as “the use of armed force by a state against the sovereignty, integrity or independence of another state.”
The British parliament subsequently decided not to include the crime of aggression in domestic law, effectively shielding Blair from prosecution.
Bapela said it was not in South Africa’s “best interests” to arrest the leader of a fellow BRICS member.
“South Africa will never arrest Putin. That would be a declaration of war, as [former Russian president] Dmitriy Medvedev said: ‘Any country that arrests Putin, you are declaring war on us.’
“It’s like when you say, ‘Go and arrest the president of United States.’ No one will arrest the president of United States; nowhere in the world will they ever be arrested.”
Professor Anil Sooklal, ambassador at large for Asia and BRICS and South Africa’s BRICS emissary, told The Epoch Times Putin “will attend the summit, whether virtually or in-person, but his presence is essential.”
He said all BRICS leaders had accepted invitations in late April.
“All of the leaders, including President Putin, are looking forward to attending the summit in person in South Africa in August.”
In 2015, South Africa refused to comply with an ICC warrant of arrest for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, wanted for war crimes in his country’s Darfur region.
Instead of obeying a court decision ordering Al-Bashir’s detention, the government allowed him to board a flight back to Khartoum.
In early May, the ICC’s top prosecutor Karim Khan told Canadian parliamentarians he remained confident South Africa “will do the right thing” and arrest Putin should the Russian leader visit the country.
South Africa’s Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola told The Epoch Times his government would act “legally but judiciously” with regard to the Putin matter.
“We are looking at various options at this stage. We know we have to act fast because time is running out. One of the options we are looking at is including in our law the option to extend customary diplomatic immunity to visiting heads of state.”
South Africa’s domestic ICC law in its present form declares that “head of state immunity shall not apply for cases before the ICC.”
Professor Gerhard Kemp, international criminal justice expert at the University of Stellenbosch, is convinced that the South African government is set to introduce significant amendments to the domestic ICC implementation legislation.
“These will, however, need to be debated in parliament and are likely to face heavy objections from opposition parties, especially from the Democratic Alliance which is very anti-Russian.
“So I can’t see how the government will be able to pass laws protecting Putin from arrest by August,” Kemp told The Epoch Times.
“Whether such an amendment will be in compliance with the Rome Statute and the Constitution is debatable, but the government seems convinced that this is a legitimate balance between South Africa’s foreign policy interests and the demands of international criminal justice.”
Several leading ANC members told The Epoch Times they don’t think Putin actually wants to physically attend the BRICS summit, despite his acceptance of an invitation to do so.
“The whole world is debating about his possible arrest in South Africa but we don’t hear anything from Putin himself. Does he really want to leave Moscow when anything could happen while he is away?” said one of the officials.
“We don’t know what kind of domestic threats he may be facing at this stage and in August. Surely he would want to stay near the Kremlin in case the war takes a turn that would require his immediate attention?”
