The South African government is increasingly cornered over the Putin case: the controversy sparked by the Russian leader’s invitation to the BRICS bloc summit to be held in August 2023 in Johannesburg, the country’s financial capital.
South Africa joins the International Criminal Court in The Hague, a condition that would require the government to arrest a political leader pursued by an arrest warrant issued in March 2023 for war crimes in Ukraine. In fact, Pretoria has been studying for months a legal solution to avoid the arrest of the “Tsar”, a dossier entrusted by President Ramaphosa to an internal juridical commission.
A source interviewed by the news agency Bloomberg he said Pretoria was considering abandoning the event altogether, asking China or neighbors Mozambique to offer an alternative venue for the summit. The South African authorities have denied the rumors, reiterating that the summit will be held in the venue already foreseen in the agenda.
The government evaluates the “legal options” and sends envoys to the G7
While awaiting clarification, Pretoria remains poised between the expectations of the partners of the Brics bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and domestic and international irritation over the hypothesis of welcoming Putin. The scandal escalated even more when the Department of International Relations and Cooperation published a document detailing the “benefits” of the summit participants, starting with diplomatic immunity: a shield that would automatically extend to Putin himself, dispensing South Africa from making a treacherous arrest for its relations with Moscow.
Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor told the local press that the government is evaluating “legal options” pending in the case, in an attempt to appease a controversy that is heating up the opposition and could widen the rift with Western countries. Pretoria is seen as increasingly unbalanced in favor of the axis between China and above all Russia, an orientation marked by the choice not to “take sides” in the Ukrainian conflict and other decisions with heavy impacts on its international perception.