South Africa and the ICC are at loggerheads after the government failed to abide by an ICC warrant to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he was attending an African Union (AU) summit in Johannesburg in mid-June this year.
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Worldwide relations subcommittee chairperson Obed Bapela said today the ICC, of which South Africa is a signatory, was not fulfulling its mandate.
“The African National Congress Youth League is disgusted by the attention-seeking sentiments and insanity of a few Afrikaner farmer from Rustenburg who has reportedly lodged a complaint with the global Criminals Court (ICC) about the singing of liberation songs in South Africa’s ANC-led liberation movement”, the ANC said at the time.
The resolution came out of an ANC policy meeting where leaders are reviewing the party’s policies ahead of the country’s municipal elections in 2016.
“South Africa still holds the flag of human rights, we are not lowering it”, he said, adding that powerful nations also trample human rights.
Al-Bashir is accused of genocide and war crimes and is wanted by the ICC.
But South Africa’s withdrawal from the ICC will close the case for good.
Under the AU rules, no organization can arrest any sitting head of state in African countries. In 2010, a white farmer filed a complaint with the court after high-ranking party members in the ANC youth league sang a traditional liberation song that a few consider an incitement to hatred for its “Kill the Boer” lyrics, referring to South African farmers of Dutch-settler origin.
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The government last week asked the ICC for more time to explain why it allowed Bashir to leave. “Its application of law is not only atrocious, given the flawed processes that it employs; it is also selective and clearly targeted towards African and Arab leaders”, wrote memoirist Malaika wa Azania in a June 2015 column for South Africa’s Sunday Independent.
