ANC NGC resolves to withdraw SA from ICC

South Africa’s ruling party has voted to withdraw from the global Criminal Court (ICC) following a row over a visit by Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president who is the subject of an arrest warrant.

The decision was made at a meeting of the ruling party’s National General Council (NGC), said Obed Bapela, Head of the ANC’s worldwide Relations Commission.

But Bapela said that the ICC “has lost its direction”.

South Africa was the first African country to sign up to the ICC and adopted the court’s founding Rome Statute into domestic law in 2002.

Bashir is accused of masterminding genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes during Sudan’s Darfur conflict and is wanted by the Hague-based tribunal, which issued a warrant for his arrest in 2009.

The party believes powerful countries who are not signatories are able to make decisions with far-reaching consequences and that military regime changes, including the one in Libya, have not brought about sustainable peace.

In 2010, a white farmer filed a complaint with the court after high-ranking party members in the ANC youth league sang a traditional liberation song that a few consider an incitement to hatred for its “Kill the Boer” lyrics, referring to South African farmers of Dutch-settler origin.

The United States is one of the countries that is not a member of the ICC.

“The request was made with a view to assess whether South Africa was in breach of its obligations to cooperate with the Court”, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It will also be tabled at the African Union summit to be held in January where it is likely to garner considerable support because of a widely-held belief among the continent’s leaders that the ICC unfairly targets Africans.

Earlier this year, South Africa Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe had already alluded to an exit from the ICC, while qualifying at the time that it would only be a last resort.