Cape Town, South Africa – South Africa’s Justice Minister Ronald Lamola has criticized the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its inconsistency in its work. Lamola addressed Parliament on Tuesday and stated that the fact that an investigation into the atrocities in Palestine has not been completed while the one in Ukraine, opened later, already has a referral against a non-member state is an injustice.
Since March, the South African government has been vocal about the ICC’s arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been accused of committing war crimes, including against young children, since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia is not an ICC member state, but Putin has been invited to attend a summit in South Africa, an ICC signatory, in August. This has led to a debate, locally and internationally, about whether he will be arrested or not.
The summit is a convergence of countries in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), a group of emerging economies. As a signatory to the ICC’s Rome Statute, South Africa is legally obliged to act on the warrant if Putin arrives in the country. This has raised questions about the role of the ICC and its relations with Africa.