Parliament – The African National Congress caucus in Parliament on Friday said it would support processes in the national legislature to pave the way for South Africa’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.
“As the ANC in Parliament, we will be ready to carry out our legislative function as part of the parliamentary process of repealing the implementation of the Rome Statute once it has been introduced to parliament by Cabinet,” ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu’s office said in a statement.
“It is our long held view that the ICC has long diverted from its mandate of being an independent and objective instrument in bringing an end to heinous crimes against humanity and the violation of human rights on the African continent. Instead the ICC has allowed non-member states to dictate and interfere with its work to suit their own imperialist agendas.”
The statement was sent in reaction to an announcement by Justice Minister Michael Masutha that the South African government has informed the United Nations of its intention to withdraw from the ICC. He said the withdrawal would take effect one year after the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon received the notification.
Masutha, however, said South Africa remained committed to holding accountable those who have committed crimes against humanity and other grave crimes.
In a letter delivered to Ki-Moon, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said that South Africa’s membership of the ICC was interfering with its peace mediation efforts in Africa.
This was an apparent reference to the ICC’s indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for alleged atrocities in Darfur.
The South African government was found by the country’s own Supreme Court of Appeal to have failed to uphold South African law by not arresting him when he visited South Africa in June last year.
African News Agency