Pretoria - Only Parliament can decide whether South Africa should withdraw from the International
Criminal Court (ICC) and it is not a decision which can be taken by the
executive.
This is according to Advocate Steven
Budlender, on behalf of the DA, who on Monday asked the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to set side the
decision to withdraw from the ICC.
A full bench (three judges) are hearing
the application against the Ministers of International Relations and
Cooperation and Justice, as well as against President Jacob Zuma. Various
interested groups such as the Centre for Human Rights and the South African
Litigation Centre have joined the fray.
Government is disputing that the
application is urgent and said that the issue of withdrawal is due to serve
before Parliament next year. It said the approval (for the withdrawal) is
being sought and the necessary notices have already been given.
But Budlender said the government
cannot undo what has already been done. According to him only the court can
now undue South Africa’s
withdrawal.
According to him the matter is urgent as
the withdrawal will come into effect on October 1 in 2017.
This matter had to be concluded by
then, he said, which included that the Constitutional Court will have to have the final say. He
argued that by the time it did serve before Parliament, the latter should know
the court’s stance on the matter.
Budlender made it clear that according
to the DA, government cannot dictate to Parliament as to whether to withdraw
from the Rome Statute or not. He said as long as the Implementation Act
remained in place, government could not decide to withdraw from the ICC.
He questioned why there was no
consultative process prior to the executive “suddenly” announcing that South Africa was withdrawing from the ICC.
“There was no explanation given for
withdrawal… Why was it so urgent to withdraw on October 1 this year? There
could have been a consultative process. Why the sudden withdrawal,” Budlender
asked.
The legal arguments are expected to run
into Tuesday, as the matter was set down for two days.
Pretoria News