APA-Pretoria (South Africa) Pretoria is yet to make a decision on how to treat an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant of arrest issued against Russian President Vladimir Putin who is expected to attend the annual summit of the BRICS bloc set for South Africa in August, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.
Addressing journalists on the sidelines of a state visit by Namibian President Hage Geingob in Pretoria on Thursday, Ramaphosa said South Africa was still consulting on the ramifications of the ICC arrest warrant on Putin’s participation at the summit of the grouping of the world’s top emerging economies that comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“We have noted what the ICC has said in relation to President Putin and we ourselves are still discussing this matter,” Ramaphosa said.
He said as current BRICS chair, South Africa was issuing invitations to all leaders of member states and they must indicate whether they will attend or not.
“We await all the BRICS members to indicate whether they are coming or not. The matter is still being discussed.”
The ICC issued the arrest warrant against Putin over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
While South Africa is a signatory to the Rome treaty, Russia did not assent to it and is, therefore, is not a member of the court.
International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor previously confirmed that Putin has been invited to attend the summit set for the port city of Durban and press reports from Moscow said Putin had accepted the invitation.
This is not the first time the international court has put pressure on South Africa to arrest a head of state.
In 2015 South Africa did not comply with the ICC’s warrant of arrest for former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, despite a local court order for his arrest.
NM/jn/APA