S. Africa Opposition to Legally Challenge Government’s ICC Withdrawal Decision.

South Africa’s opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) plans to petition the Constitutional Court Monday to challenge the government’s decision to withdraw the country’s membership to the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC). This, after Justice Minister Michael Musutha said the government will present a motion to parliament for legislators to repeal the country’s signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC.

On Friday, South Africa officially notified the United Nations that it wants to withdraw from the ICC.

But parliamentarian James Selfe, a leading member of the DA’s legal affairs group says President Jacob Zuma’s government constitutionally erred in its approach to the United Nations before seeking approval from the South African parliament.

“The Democratic Alliance is disgusted at this decision. We think it sends out an entirely incorrect message around our commitment to human rights and our abhorrence of human rights abuses and of genocide, and we believe that it would set back our foreign policy and the way in which South Africa is viewed in a very fundamental way,” said Selfe.


By Peter Clottey.
Full story at VOA News.