Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony resuming trams operation in the Azov Sea port city of Mariupol in Russian-controlled Donetsk region, via a video link from Saint Petersburg on May 2, 2023. (Photo by Mikhail KLIMENTYEV / SPUTNIK / AFP)
Today it was reported that the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) has issued a notice in the Government Gazette on Diplomatic Immunities and Privileges for the upcoming Brics foreign ministers gathering in Cape Town, as well as the summit to be held in Johannesburg in August this year.
The department says this is “normal” and it’s purpose is merely the conferment of immunities to all international conferences and summits, held in this country, including the AU summit.
What special immunities, if one may ask? The department also asserts that the notice has absolutely nothing to do with the International Crime Court (ICC) warrants of arrests.
I’m not convinced by that assertion. Please forgive my naivety and ignorance.
I have not heard of such notices being issued in this country whenever there was such gatherings before, and we have had countless.
Maybe there were such notices issued but they was rather silent and deafening to the extreme. When Omar al-Bashir visited these shores, (and it was for an AU Summit if my memory serves me well) I don’t remember such notice being issued and, in his case, there was an ICC warrant of arrest for him.
It meant SA, as a signatory to the Roman Statutes, was under obligation to arrest him. But South Africa didn’t arrest him.
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Instead our government went to our court just to waste it’s precious time when, in fact, they knew they were planning to smuggle him out of the country while court was in session.
Clearly, at least it appears, this is “not so smart” attempt to circumvent the South African obligation to the ICC. The al-Bashir debacle was embarrassing enough to even think we can do with an even greater embarrassment.
It can only be regarded as a Vladimir Putin regulation to thwart the ICC obligation, but I’m afraid it won’t. Putin is not al-Bashir.
He represents the world power in all respects. SA, as usual, is caught up in another self-inflicted tight corner.
South Africa has to prove to the Russians that it won’t bow down to Western power and bullying. On the other hand, in the deep of the night, it sends top-level envoys to explain itself to the very powers it wants us to believe it is in “defiance” of.
In short, South Africa will not arrest Putin, even if we tried to. At the same time, we are still a party to the Roman Statutes, which, by the way, we could have dealt with at the time of al-Bashir.
Today, we most probably would not be in this predicament. And we definitely have a very strong case to present to the ICC and its main body.
But we preferred to do things other than what was important for our international relations. We are always caught by embarrassing surprises and we seem to enjoy that.
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-Monama is an independent commentator and a former Azapo leader
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