Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Presidency has dismissed as ramblings of “noisy opposition parties” the EFF’s call for BRICS leaders to boycott this month’s summit in solidarity with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Last month, the Presidency announced that Putin would attend the BRICS gathering at the Sandton Convention Centre in Gauteng from 22 to 24 August to avoid his arrest in terms of an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant that was issued in March for alleged crimes during Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
But on Friday, the EFF announced that it had written to the embassies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, accusing the South African government of blocking Putin’s summit attendance “under irrational pressure and bullying by the International Criminal Court”.
It said Putin’s physical absence from the BRICS meeting threatened “the unity, strength, and future influence of BRICS on the global stage”.
The party added:
But Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, however, said all heads of state would attend except Putin. Instead, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will represent the country.
“Heads of state can never be [commandeered] by noisy opposition parties that have little to no standing on global affairs,” Magwenya said.
“All preparations are on track and South Africa is ready to receive the BRICS heads of state and many others from the African continent and beyond who will be in attendance.”
The EFF’s announcement follows the DA’s application in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to compel the government to state whether it will uphold its international obligations as signatories to the Rome Statute that governs the ICC and implement the Putin arrest warrant.
South Africa’s BRICS emissary Professor Anil Sooklal said at a media briefing last month that 70 countries were invited to the summit, including all 54 African heads of state.
While there were reports that India’s Narendra Modi might not attend physically, the government dismissed this.
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