South Africa remains ICC participant – presidency
RTNov 26, 2022
The Facts
South Africa's presidential office late on Tuesday cited a communication error from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to explain a backtrack on comments made earlier by Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa, who suggested the country was planning to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The governing party has reportedly decided only to pursue a pullout as a last resort if there is a lack of legal avenues to end what it deems an inequitable, unfair treatment of certain nations.
The Spin
Establishment-critical narrative
It took only one year of war in Ukraine for the ICC to issue an arrest warrant against Russia's Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes, yet no one has been held accountable for the US and UK-led invasion of Iraq after two decades. This is selective justice and abuse of power at its worst, as the international body created to implement international law has been politicized to serve Western interests.
Pro-establishment narrative
Ramaphosa's government is embarrassing South Africa by engaging in diplomatic efforts to solve a self-made problem, only to protect a war criminal like Putin from being held accountable for his wrongdoing. While it is true that several other leaders have not been brought to justice due to widespread hypocrisy in the international community, this does not make the Russian strongman less guilty.
