President Cyril Ramaphosa stands next to leaders of other Brics nations including Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)
South Africa is expected to announce in the coming days that it will hand over its hosting duties for the Brics summit scheduled for August.
An insider said the government is debating whether it should hand over the hosting role to China or neighbouring Mozambique, which is among the African countries, including Egypt and Nigeria, that have shown an interest in joining Brics. The group is currently made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor’s spokesperson, Clayson Monyela, would not be drawn to comment.
The insider said the interministerial committee headed by Deputy President Paul Mashatile to navigate Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attendance of the summit given the warrant of arrest against him, will debate the possible change of venue during its meeting on Monday.
Thereafter the committee, which includes Pandor, Justice Minister Ronald Lamola and Finance Minister Enoch Godogwana, will report back to cabinet on Wednesday,.
The Mail & Guardian reported earlier on Thursday that the South African government had received the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant for Putin for crimes related to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The warrant was sent to the government on Tuesday, said Lamola’s spokesperson Chrispin Phiri, who added that the ministry was still considering the application.
“The Mail & Guardian is advised that the ICC issues warrants to all its members. To this end the warrant is not directed exclusively to the Republic of South Africa,” Phiri said.
“The department of justice and correctional services received the provisional arrest warrant of Vladimir Putin on 8 May 2023. All warrants are processed via department to the director general, the minister and the relevant authorities.”
Speaking to CNN this week, international relations director general Zane Dangor said South Africa would have to comply with the ICC warrant.
“We will have to assess what happens over the next couple of weeks or so but whatever decision we make will be in line with our obligations to international law and our own domestic law,” Dangor said.
“South Africa will be obligated to act on the warrant if nothing changes between now and the next couple of months. We don’t know whether the engagement we are having with The Hague [ICC headquarters] around whether a waiver has been received from Russia, or whether they need the waiver. So these are the legal technicalities that we need to look at.”
Some of the options the government explored included Putin joining the Brics summit virtually, but, as the M&G previously reported, this has been rejected by Moscow.
Pandor on Monday published a government gazette signing off on diplomatic immunity for the Brics summit.
The department of international relations said granting immunities and privileges “is a standard conferment of immunities that we do for all international conferences and summits held in South Africa, irrespective of the level of participation”. The immunities are for the conference and not specific individuals, it added.
Brics foreign ministers — Russia’s Sergei Lavrov, Mauro Vieira of Brazil, India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, China’s Qin Gang — and friends of Brics such as Iran’s Hossein Abdollahian, Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia, Egypt’s Sameh Shoukry, Indonesia’s foreign minister Retno Marsudi and Christophe Lutundula from the Democratic Republic of the Congo are meeting in Cape Town from Thursday.