Russian President Vladimir Putin has an arrest warrant against him. Picture: Sputnik/Pavel Bednyakov/Kremlin via Reuters
The government is waiting for a legal opinion on what to do if Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has an arrest warrant against him, travels to South Africa for a BRICS summit in August.
Minister in the Presidency for State Security Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said on Thursday that once the government received the legal opinion, a decision would be taken.
She confirmed that after the ANC national conference in Nasrec in December, a resolution was taken by the party to pull the plug on the withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.
The Bill was Parliament for South Africa’s withdrawal from the ICC, but the ANC conference decided to withdraw the bill calling for this.
This meant that South Africa was remained part of the ICC.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said recently that the ICC member should arrest Putin.
But the SACP and other parties have rejected the call for the Russian leader to be arrested.
Ntshavheni said the government was waiting for a legal opinion on the matter.
“The legal opinion has not yet been served to Cabinet. Cabinet will express its view when that matter is served by the relevant department, which is the Department of International Relations and Cooperation and we will advise accordingly,” said Ntshavheni.
She added that until then, they could not talk about the issues they were considering.
The legal opinion would give guidance on the Cabinet’s action on the matter.
Ntshavheni said there was no indication that the country would pull out of the ICC.
“Whether South Africa is considering withdrawing from the ICC, you will recall that South Africa had started to table a Bill, which was in Parliament for a withdrawal from the ICC and the governing party took a resolution not to withdraw and that bill has subsequently been withdrawn from Parliament three weeks ago,” said Ntshavheni.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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