Justice Minister Ronald Lamola has confirmed that they are looking at introducing a Bill that will give Russian President Vladimir Putin immunity from prosecution if he sets foot in South Africa to attend the upcoming BRICS summit.
Lamola said there were a number of options they were looking at in dealing with the visit by Putin.
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has also spoken about amending the law to give immunity to Putin during the visit.
Lamola, who was briefing members of the portfolio committee on justice and correctional services on Tuesday, also slammed the double standards applied by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its prosecution of people.
He said Israel has been committing human rights abuses against Palestinians for years but not a single leader of Israel had been charged by the ICC.
He said the war in Ukraine began last February but already resources had been found to prosecute Putin.
The ANC government came under fire after President Cyril Ramaphosa recently backtracked on earlier statement that the ANC had decided to withdraw from the ICC.
Lamola too reiterated that South Africa was still a member of the court.
A resolution by the ANC conference last December had called on the government to withdraw a Bill that was aimed at pulling out of the ICC.
This was in light of the fact that the Malabo protocol that would establish the African Court of Justice and Human Rights had not been ratified.
The arrest warrant against Putin has brought into the public domain the issue of the ICC.
Lamola said they were looking at all options on the table.
“We are looking at all options in this regard including to look into the Bill that may amend the implementation of the Act so as to bring it in line with international customary law such as that practised in Great Britain and Holland where the Executive has the power to exit or suspend the implementation of the statute where it is not in the national interest to continue with its implementation,” said Lamola.
He also said there were double standards by the ICC when it came to the Rome Statute.
In the past the ICC had complained about lack of financial resources to investigate and prosecute Israeli leaders for human rights abuses in Palestine.
However, in a short space of time there were funds to prosecute Putin over Ukraine.
Lamola said Palestinians had been subjected to unmeasurable abuses for years and no one has been charged for it.
“The point we are raising is that the ICC must not have eyes when it comes to the law. It must be equal. It must be fair. Everyone must be treated the same. With the Palestinian issue it was opened before, the ICC should by now have referred those atrocities and crimes against humanity that are happening in that area of Palestine, committed by Israeli authorities. By now there should have been a decision to refer because it happened before Ukraine. We are calling for fairness. I do believe that even members in this committee want to see fairness, that when a law is applied it is applied fairly, equally and without any eyes. We do believe the rule of law gets undermined when the law is applied selectively,” said Lamola.
Ntshavheni had also raised the issue of amending the Bill to prevent the prosecution of Putin.
She had said this was part of the options that the Inter-Ministerial Committee, chaired by Deputy President Paul Mashatile, would be studying as well.
Ntshavheni said the inter-ministerial committee will be reporting back to the Cabinet on the proposals in due course.
The BRICS summit is scheduled to take place in August.
Current Affairs