Dear Editor
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has noted with alarm the African National Congress’s (ANC) announcement today that South Africa will withdraw from the Rome Statute.
This decision is an overt declaration of hostility to the international community of democracies, and to South Africa’s largest trading bloc, the European Union.
Despite Russia accounting for as little as 0.3% of South Africa’s trade ties, the ANC is willing to disregard South Africa’s crucial domestic interests in order to protect an alleged war criminal and shore up oligarchic patronage.
As has become a defining feature of South Africa’s chaotic foreign policy approach, the narrow interests of individuals eclipse our nation’s most sacred constitutional principles, yet again.
The DA will oppose any attempts by the ANC to use Parliament to protect an alleged war criminal at the expense of our national interests.
The DA’s Chief Whip in Parliament, Siviwe Gwarube, will in due course outline the Party’s plans to block any forthcoming attempts by the ANC to escape their obligations under international law by using their fragile majority in Parliament.
The ANC should be reminded that on the basis of the last electoral results, they now enjoy less than 50% of the popular vote. The DA will not stand back as a crumbling former liberation movement trades on the fortunes of over 60 million citizens in order to protect Vladimir Putin and their cadres in the Kremlin.
Regards
Emma Louise Powell MP
DA Shadow Minister of International Relations and Cooperation
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