July 19, (THEWILL) – President Cyril Ramaphosa has told the High Court in Gauteng that arresting Russian President Vladimir Putin, if he travels to South Africa for the BRICS summit in August, would be a declaration of war against Russia.
“It would be a reckless, unconstitutional and unlawful exercise of the powers conferred upon the government to declare war with Russia by arresting President Putin
“It would be inconsistent with our Constitution to risk engaging in war with Russia. I have constitutional obligations to protect the national sovereignty, peace and security of the republic, and to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights of the people of the republic to life, safety and security, among other rights in the Bill of Rights”, Ramaphosa told the court in his affidavit.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March, accusing him of war crimes relating to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine since February last year.
Putin has been invited to a BRICS summit in Johannesburg next month.
But leading South Africa’s opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), is trying to force the government’s hand and ensure the Kremlin leader is held and handed over to the ICC if he steps foot in the country.
The DA had filed an application before a High Court, praying a court order that the government must “take all necessary steps to arrest and detain President Putin for surrender to the ICC” should he arrive for the BRICS summit, expected to run from 22 to 24 August in Johannesburg.
The DA is relying on the Supreme Court of Appeal’s (SCA) 2015 judgment that it was unlawful for the government not to have arrested Sudan’s former president Omar al-Bashir when he attended the African Union summit in June of that year.
The ICC had also issued an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir for alleged war crimes he committed during his 26-year reign before being ousted by a 2019 military coup.
Ramaphosa said in his affidavit that the DA’s demand for the government to arrest Putin was “incompetent” because “the government of South Africa is not cited as a party to the application, and no relief can therefore be granted against it”.
The DA has cited government ministries including justice, police, international relations and cooperation, as well as the national police commissioner.
It disputed Ramaphosa’s arguments in its replying affidavit, saying the 2015 SCA Al-Bashir judgment “referred to the cited state functionary as the government”.
“For this reason alone, the respondents’ complainant is baseless”, said Elzanne Jonker, the DA’s attorney of record.
She added that Ramaphosa, in his papers, had not claimed that Putin was entitled to immunity from arrest and surrender to the ICC, either internationally or domestically.
The case will now be argued in open court on Friday
