ConCourt decision halts DA agenda to defend imperialism
15 November 2016
The African National Congress (ANC) has noted and welcomes the decision of the Constitutional Court to dismiss the application of the Democratic Alliance (DA) relating to the policy decision of the government of South Africa to proceed with withdrawing from the International Criminal Court, alongside other African countries. The application was nothing more than just yet another concerted effort by the DA to defend imperialism and the continued subjugation of Africa under the guise of "promoting human rights".
The ANC wishes to express its condemnation of the continued attempt by the DA to circumvent political processes of the Republic. They actively seek to co-govern with the elected executive by using courts as platforms for pursuing mostly political positions. The dismissal of their application is thus a positive rejection of their dangerous attempt at drawing the judiciary into ideological and political contests that do not violate constitutionality.
There is no truth to the political claim that is being peddled by the opposition that withdrawal from the Rome Statute is an affirmation of the right of despots to perpetuate human rights abuses in the continent. This claim reveals a moral and ideological weakness and committed defense by the perpetual defenders of imperialism suggesting that human rights protection in Africa can and should only be guaranteed on the basis of the intervention of external powers.
The withdrawal from the Rome Statute is in effect a rejection of the imperial gaze into global justice that the International Criminal Court has been systematically advancing. Our global political economy is laden with histories and present acts of military aggression advanced by powerful nations of the west. Their acts of direct war and sponsored militias are a widely known blemish on the global human rights agenda. Their decision not to sign into the Rome Statute still betrays a political arrogance and imperial agenda that undermines the goodwill with which African countries participated in global statutes.
The withdrawal from the Rome Statute is not unrelated to a growing effort to establish an African Union judicial platform to pursue peace and justice in the continent. It is a crucial part of a self-conscious act on the part of Africans to accelerate the establishment of pan-African institutions that must guarantee and enforce justice on human rights matters.
The ANC will lead the charge to have leaders of African institutions and African countries redouble efforts to strengthen existing continental structures that protect and promote human rights. They must speed up the establishment and resourcing of institutions that will prosecute human rights violations in pursuit of peace and stability in the continent.
Issued by Zizi Kodwa, National Spokesperson, ANC, 15 November 2016
