Johannesburg - ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula did not mince his words when he told BBC journalist Stephen Sucker that the ANC would warmly welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin when he makes his BRICS Summit visit in Durban in August.
Early this year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant of arrest for Putin for alleged war crimes due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Mbalula said the country would not be bullied into arresting a head of state for alleged war crimes that the UK and America had not paid for after raiding Iraq and other countries for unfounded weapons of mass destruction.
“If it were according to the ANC, we would want President Putin here even tomorrow. Of course, we will welcome President Putin. We will welcome him to come here as part and parcel of BRICS, but we know that we are constrained by the ICC in terms of doing that. Putin is a head of state; do you think that a head of state can be arrested anywhere? How many crimes has the UK committed in Iraq?” Mbalula added.
He said the UK and its leaders must also answer for the millions of Iraqi and other international wars they have waged in foreign countries. This, he said, included Tony Blair’s raiding of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction.
“How many crimes has everyone else who is so vocal today committed in Iraq and Afghanistan? Have you arrested Tony Blair… You are making a lot of noise about Putin instead of working for peace between Ukraine and Russia, and you fail to resolve this war. Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Tony Blair went to Iraq and claimed there were weapons of mass destruction. Did you see anybody standing against that in the UK? More than a million people have died in Afghanistan and Iraq, but there are no weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
South Africa, which is the BRICS chair for 2023, is scheduled to host Brazil, China, India and Russia at the summit in August.
As a member of the ICC, South Africa is obliged to arrest Putin if he attends the Brics summit, an obligation to which the ANC has been trying to find a solution for the past few months.
The Star