ICC exit a poor example

The Cape Chamber of Commerce & Industry is gravely concerned at SA’s intention to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Our country should be a role model for accountability of crimes against innocent people.

Kenya was the first country to withdraw after its leaders were charged, and although these charges were subsequently dropped it is alarming that we might be contributing to a trend for African countries to withdraw. We accept the fact that the majority of cases appearing before the court are African, however these are referred to the ICC by the countries themselves.

The question to ask is: are our leaders focused on protecting themselves at the expense of providing a safe and secure environment for all their citizens?

It’s about holding people to account — an aspect of a healthy society we should never lose as a country. We already set a bad example over the [Sudanese President Omar] Bashir incident, which was described as “disgraceful conduct” by the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Leaders and former leaders of countries of the West are exonerated even though they seem to have committed worse crimes than their African counterparts. The likes of Tony Blair, George W Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy are walking free, yet they have committed war crimes worse than the currently accused leaders.

Africa need not rely on this useless intergovernmental body. We have the capacity to deal with crimes against humanity as long as our political will is in place. We must not be dictated to by the West as to how we run our affairs.

I hope many other African countries will see the ICC for what it truly is. It is clearly not neutral, but a body with an agenda to undermine our sovereignty as Third World countries. Let all the countries of Africa withdraw their membership from this useless body and see if it can continue to exist. acted surprised last week, rejected her plea and never listened to her request. Instead of assisting her to get those funds, committee chairman Mathole Motshekga and his ANC colleagues treated her like an enemy of the government.