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Tag: Africas

  • South Africa’s president and ANC sow confusion over leaving ICC

    South Africa’s president and ANC sow confusion over leaving ICC

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    South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, sowed confusion about the country’s relationship with the international criminal court (ICC) on Tuesday by announcing its withdrawal, only for his office to retract the statement within a few hours.

    Debate within Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) over membership of the court has heated up since the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin in March for his role in the Russian abduction of Ukrainian children. But Putin has been invited to a summit in South Africa of the Brics group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in August and the Kremlin has said the Russian leader will take a decision nearer the time on whether he would attend.

    Ramaphosa told reporters on Tuesday: “The governing party, the ANC, has taken the decision that it is prudent that South Africa should pull out of the ICC largely because of the manner in which the ICC has been seen to be dealing with these types of problems.”

    Within hours however, his office issued a statement saying “The presidency wishes to clarify that South Africa remains a signatory (to the ICC).”

    The statement said the “clarification follows an error in a comment made during a media briefing held by the governing African National Congress.”

    South Africa is a signatory to the ICC’s founding document, the Rome statute, and would be obliged to obey the arrest warrant, but the government has long complained of what it deems to be the court’s double standards.

    South Africa began proceedings to leave the ICC in 2016 after a dispute over whether to arrest the former Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, who visited for an African summit while under ICC indictment for genocide and crimes against humanity.

    However, the government recently suspended those proceedings in the face of legal obstacles, and on Tuesday the ANC’s national executive committee put out a statement noting the decision at the party conference this year that “the ANC and the South African government must rescind the withdrawal from the ICC court”. At the same time it urged ratification of a protocol to lay the ground for an African court of justice and human rights.

    “So the president appears to have messed up the message – ANC has decided to rescind notice of withdrawal from the ICC and NOT attempt to withdraw from ICC again,” Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, a South African lawyer and director of the Africa programme of the International Commission of Jurists, said on Twitter.

    “Someone in the ANC has erroneously briefed the president when in fact the ANC has taken a decision to rescind the withdrawal from the ICC not to commence withdrawal anew. Is there any quality control happening?”

    Even if South Africa took the decision to leave the ICC, it would still be bound by its membership obligations, including executing arrest warrants, for 12 months following its notification of withdrawal.



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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • UAE rejects South Africa’s request for Gupta brothers’ extradition

    UAE rejects South Africa’s request for Gupta brothers’ extradition

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    Johannesburg: South Africa said Friday that the UAE has turned down its request to extradite two brothers from the wealthy Indian-origin Gupta family to face trial in the country on fraud and corruption charges.

    The three Gupta brothers, Ajay, Atul and Rajesh, are wanted in South Africa for their alleged roles in the looting of billions of rands from state enterprises. They are alleged to have used their closeness to former president Jacob Zuma to do this.

    The South African government last year submitted a formal extradition application to the United Arab Emirates for Rajesh Gupta and Atul Gupta.

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    The family fled to Dubai five years ago as the net closed in on them following Zuma’s ousting by his own African National Congress when he refused to step down.

    Justice Minister Ronald Lamola says his government is “shocked and dismayed” after the UAE declined the request

    Lamola said he only learnt about the decision after his office enquired with the local UAE embassy, which said that they had received a note verbale stating this.

    “We learnt with shock and dismay that the extradition hearing had been concluded in the Dubai courts on February 13, 2023, and our extradition request was unsuccessful,” Lamola said.

    “The reasons provided are of a technical nature, and fly in the face of (earlier) assurances given by the UAE authorities that our request meets their requirements,” he said.

    Lamola said the decision would be appealed.

    Legal experts however said such an appeal would be to no avail, as the Gupta brothers are believed to now be in Switzerland.

    Originally from Saharanpur in India, the Guptas built an empire in the IT, media and mining industries after first arriving in the country to start a shoe shop soon after Nelson Mandela was released from 27 years as a political prisoner to become the first democratically-elected president.

    “We have complied with every letter of the extradition treaty that we have between ourselves and the UAE authorities. To ensure this compliance, we have even allowed the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to go to the UAE for engagements with their counterparts before the papers were submitted,” Lamola said at a media briefing.

    “The Central Authority in the UAE and the prosecution in the UAE confirmed that all our papers are in order. So from our side, we have complied and that is why we are bemused by this judgement that cites technicalities. We find it shocking,” he added.

    Lamola said that even if there was a technical issue, the UAE should have sought clarity from South Africa in line with Article 17 of the UN Convention Against Corruption, which requires consultation with the applicant country before a decision is taken.

    “We still intend to engage with our counterparts in the UAE to ensure that the decision of the court is promptly appealed, as well as to devise other mechanisms to deal with the matter. That discussion must also preserve the integrity of our bilateral relations,” Lamola said.

    (Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )