Cape Town – DA leader John Steenhuisen is seeking court approval to make certain parts of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s affidavit public in the party’s case concerning the arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
President Cyril Ramaphosa recently submitted a confidential answering affidavit in response to a case brought by the DA asking the court to declare that SA has a duty to arrest Putin if he comes to SA to attend the Brics summit in August.
The DA had requested the Gauteng High Court to issue an order for the arrest and surrender of Putin to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if he attends the Brics summit.
The government missed the deadline to respond to the case but requested a three-day extension.
The ICC had issued an arrest warrant against Putin in March, accusing him of war crimes related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. South Africa, as an ICC signatory, is obligated to arrest Putin if he attends the summit.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen says his legal team is making representations to the courts to make public some parts of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s affidavit on its Vladimir Putin arrest warrant case. pic.twitter.com/f7O9GJl9i5
— AfricanTimes2005 (@African_TimesSA) July 6, 2023
According to News24, Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the confidentiality of the president’s affidavit was in line with requirements by the ICC.
“The respondents are obliged in terms of international law to keep the interactions with the ICC on the warrant of arrest against President Putin confidential. The ICC requires the fact of the request for cooperation to be kept confidential. To date, there has been no relaxation of the requirement of confidentiality by the ICC,” the report quoted Magwenya as saying.
But, according to EWN, Steenhuisen argued that only the aspects related to the arrest warrant should be redacted, as he believed the public interest outweighed the need for confidentiality.
“We believe the public interest overrides the confidentiality that is required and certainly we believe the aspects that could remain confidential, doesn’t mean that the entire affidavit should be clouded under confidentiality,” the report quoted the DA leader as saying.
He added: “To have Mr Putin come here and not execute the warrant, I think, would be the final nail in the coffin for things like [the African Growth and Opportunity Act].
“I think it would fundamentally end up towards starting some form of either direct or indirect sanctions of South Africa, and that’s the last thing our floundering economy needs right now.”
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
