On the slippery slope from shining example to cautionary tale

SOUTH Africa’s decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, while frustrating or annoying to some, is also in many ways a reflection of its inexorable fall from the respect it had not so long ago.

It can be argued that South Africa is too compromised to even belong to such a body or to sit in judgment of other nations. It should be left alone to wallow and fraternise with the likes of Sudan, North Korea, China et cetera.

Its star has not just waned; it’s become a laughing stock in the world and an embarrassment to its people.

South Africa’s transition was welcomed with such warmth and goodwill by the international community that it was almost adopted as a template for how nations can resolve intractable problems without resorting to violence.

It crafted a constitution that was intolerant of abuse of any kind, and a Constitutional Court to support and protect it.

The Chapter 9 institutions to strengthen and reinforce our democracy were another constitutional innovation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission drained the swamp of apartheid.

The world cheered. It became a popular thing to say that South Africa was punching above its weight. With so much goodwill and so many friends and hangers-on, it had to. Everybody wanted to bask in the reflected glory of the new kid on the block.

At some point we even thought a seat on the UN Security Council was ours for the taking. That’s how highly we thought of ourselves.

But things have gone pear-shaped. All that goodwill has evaporated.

What’s so annoying about South Africa’s withdrawal from the ICC is that it’s done not to further the interests of its people, but to appease mass murderers such as Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.

Justice Minister Michael Masutha says the Rome Statute presents “legal difficulties” around diplomatic immunity. In other words, we’d rather welcome Bashir than stop his genocide.

Our malleable president was coerced by Mugabe, then AU chairman, and AU Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to allow Bashir into South Africa, knowing full well the ICC would obligate the country to arrest him.

And the government sent its lawyers to lie to the court about Bashir’s whereabouts while it scuttled him out of the country.

We trample on our values to please murderous despots. We shall be judged by the company we keep. These, frankly, are the machinations of cheats and charlatans, and not a self-respecting democratic government.

Incidentally, Dlamini-Zuma is odds-on favourite to succeed her ex-husband. The Guptas have given their seal of approval. Last year they gave her something called the South African of the Year award. She’s in their pocket, it seems. But I digress.

The exit from the ICC is the culmination of a descent that began long ago. It predates the Zuma administration. The rot started under Thabo Mbeki.

South Africa, young as it is in international terms, has already chaired the UN Security Council twice, and it disappointed each time. It used its position to vote against resolutions demanding an end to human rights abuses in places such as Myanmar (Burma), Zimbabwe and Iran.

In fact, at the time, defending Mugabe’s excesses seemed almost like South Africa’s sole mission on the council.

Its decisions are often difficult to understand, if not an outright betrayal of our values and laws. To celebrate Human Rights Day in December 2009, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution decriminalising homosexuality. South Africa refused to support the declaration, although gay rights are enshrined in our constitution.

In June this year South Africa abstained from a vote at the UN Human Rights Council to appoint an independent watchdog to deal with violence against gay people. And this from a country where the murder of gays and lesbians has become a crisis, especially in the townships. How a government in control of its faculties can be neutral on such matters simply boggles the mind.

South Africa has also joined freedom-loving luminaries such as China and Russia to vote against a UN resolution supporting internet freedom. In other words, a government steeped in democracy is against freedom of speech. How nice.

There is no logic to the madness. Zuma and his foreign minister are clueless on international matters. It seems when in doubt, their fall-back position is to line up behind Africa, China or Russia. We have no position of our own, or we don’t have the courage to defend whatever position serves our interest.

The decision to exit the ICC was taken by the AU, for instance, and so we meekly abide by it. And most African countries are unashamedly, even proudly, homophobic, and so we shamelessly line up behind them.

South Africa has laws and values — all there in the constitution.

It’s about time we stuck by them, both at home and abroad.

We trample on our values to please despots. We shall be judged by the company we keep