Johannesburg - ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says President Cyril Ramaphosa will "at the right time" announce the government’s decision on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes.
Mbalula was speaking during an ANC Western Cape Conference address at the weekend.
Two months ago, Ramaphosa appointed Deputy President Paul Mashatile to lead a task team looking into options for South Africa ahead of Putin’s arrival in the country to attend the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) summit in August.
According to media reports, President Cyril Ramaphosa had convinced Putin to stay home, as this was the only safe option to avert this impending ICC arrest.
The ICC’s warrant of arrest issued in March continues to put the ruling party and government in a difficult position with no definite plan on how to avert a Putin arrest should he come to SA for the BRICS Summit in August.
"The president and government have been given a mandate by the ANC to deal with this matter. It is our turn to host the BRICS Summit, and the president will at the right moment brief the nation and everybody else about what will happen, having exhausted all avenues of ensuring that BRICS takes place successfully," Mbalula said.
Mbalula said parliamentarians are heavily engaged in trying to find a way to amend the Rome Statute in order to exempt the arrest of "individuals such as Putin".
"We are signatories to the ICC Rome Statute, and we say that must be amended to allow people of Putin’s calibre to be exempted when they visit our country.
"We didn’t start that; even the UK has that. Our parliamentarians have been given the responsibility to amend the domestication of the Rome Statute; that is what we are talking about as the ANC," Mbalula told the delegates.
The Star