South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, sowed confusion about the country’s relationship with the international criminal court (ICC) on Tuesday by announcing its withdrawal, only for his office to retract the statement within a few hours.
Debate within Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) over membership of the court has heated up since the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin in March for his role in the Russian abduction of Ukrainian children. But Putin has been invited to a summit in South Africa of the Brics group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in August and the Kremlin has said the Russian leader will take a decision nearer the time on whether he would attend.
