Putin is due in South Africa next month for the watershed Brics Summit.
Johannesburg - The Democratic Alliance (DA) has welcomed the North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, order to the South African government to uphold its responsibility to arrest the Russian President Vladmir Putin following a request by the International Criminal Court.
The DA lodged an application in the High Court this week and their court application was fortified by an affidavit filed by Director-General of Justice and Constitutional Development Adv Doctor Mashabane.
In his affidavit, it emerged that the Justice and Constitutional Development department had officially written a letter to the National Director of Public Prosecution Adv Shamila Batohi asking her to provisionally issue a warrant of arrest for President Putin.
Mashabane wrote to Batohi on June 29. Mashabane, in his affidavit, told the court that he had initially received a letter from the director-general of International Relations and Cooperation Zane Dangor on May 8, requesting him as the central authority in his department to apply for the provisional arrest of Putin. The request was made after the ICC made a formal request to the South African Embassy in The Hague on May 2, 2023.
All these letters, however, were only filed in the High Court on Thursday in response to the DA’s urgent application.
Putin is due in South Africa next month for the watershed Brics Summit.
After the court’s ruling yesterday, DA leader John Steenhuisen said the affidavit was a direct response to pressure from their r court application to enforce the ICC directive for Putin to be arrested on charges of war crimes for the abduction of Ukrainian children.
Steenhuisen said these facts were confirmed in an order issued by the Gauteng High Court in the DA’s case to compel the South African government to uphold its responsibility to arrest Putin.
The court also ordered that the Director-General of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development must pay the DA’s legal costs in this case.
This was in the same week that the DA’s court application was heard.
“This means that, thanks to the DA’s sustained political and legal pressure to ensure compliance with our country’s international obligations, the government on 17 July 2023 formally initiated the process to arrest Vladimir Putin should he set foot on our soil.
“Despite President Cyril Ramaphosa’s best efforts to shield Putin from accountability for his alleged war crimes – including through his absurd claim that the South African Constitution somehow prohibited him from complying with the ICC directive – it is now clear that the DA’s commitment to justice and the rule of law has been completely vindicated,” he said.
Steenhuisen said the Justice Department’s request for Batohi to issue a warrant of arrest for Putin directly contradicts Ramaphosa and confirms the DA’s stance that this was always the only correct course of action.
“Thanks to the DA’s sustained fight on this issue, we have forced the South African government to uphold the rule of law in spite of Ramaphosa’s attempts to protect Putin.
“This DA victory sends a clear message to the global community that, thanks to a patriotic official opposition and a justice system anchored in our Constitution, South Africa is not yet a lost cause in the global fight for a better world,” Steenhuisen said.
He said the DA hopes that their success in compelling the government to initiate arrest proceedings against Putin would begin to restore the country’s global standing and avert looming economic catastrophes like potential sanctions and South Africa’s ejection from the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA).
“The DA’s victory in this case sends a clear message to the global community that while the African National Congress (ANC) may have chosen the side of tyranny over justice and the rule of law, the DA and the people of South Africa will not allow a governing party who’s time in power is rapidly running out, to do so in our name,” he said.