By Angela Mudukuti There have been many significant developments in the world of international criminal justice recently. Last week the International Criminal Court confirmed charges against Ugandan Dominic Ongwen, recorded a guilty plea from Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi and convicted the former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo. The International […]
Omar al-Bashir
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Do we have a duty to arrest Omar al-Bashir and hand him to the ICC?
By Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh These will be some of the deliberations at the Supreme Court of Appeal hearing tomorrow in the state’s appeal of the June 2015 high court order to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Will this court arrive at a different conclusion in respect of the arrest of al-Bashir? The state certainly hopes so. […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
The state of play in the al-Bashir saga
By Angela Mudukuti On September 16, the North Gauteng High Court denied the South African government leave to appeal in the case pertaining to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes. After a United Nations (UN) Security Council referral of the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
ANC is transmogrifying into Zanu-PF
The Zanufication of the African National Congress proceeds apace. With every week that passes our governing party more closely resembles its Zanu-PF counterpart in Zimbabwe. In an apparently co-ordinated campaign, opponents are vilified and delegitimised. It seems that at best they are unwitting dupes of imperialist Western interests, lacking appropriate revolutionary consciousness as decreed by […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Impunity vs Immunity: Africa and the ICC
By Netsanet Belay As the International Criminal Court (ICC) opens its Assembly of States Parties — the periodic gathering of all the countries who have ratified the court’s statute — in The Hague, it does so with a bloody nose. The court was yet again met with contempt this month by South Africa’s failure to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The spectre of apartheid lives on
In a kind of irony only found in the movies, Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development John Jeffery was invited to speak on the “Rule of Law” before a Cape Town audience on the same day that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir fled South Africa in contravention of a court order. The room was filled […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Al-Bashir: Thank goodness for the separation of powers
By Angela Mudukuti After approaching the North Gauteng High Court on Saturday, June 13, on an urgent basis the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) managed to secure an interim order preventing President Omar al-Bashir from leaving the country pending the finalisation of the matter before court. Yet to everyone’s surprise the South African government allowed […]
Posted inNews/Politics
SA foreign policy hits a new low
The astonishing aspect to the diplomatic debacle involving Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is not that this genocidal maniac was allowed to leave South Africa. It was that he was allowed to come here in the first place. Al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The al-Bashir saga: Questions about the bottom line on SA’s sovereignty
By Jan Hofmeyr One of the more revealing aspects of this week’s fracas involving Omar al-Bashir’s entry and exit from the African Union Summit in Sandton, is the deep insecurity our government has displayed in asserting its own sovereignty. Faced with a choice between adherence to our constitution, abiding to an international convention to which […]
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Con Air: African Escape
We open on SA President Jacob Zuma seeing off Sudan President Omar al-Bashir at Air Force Base Waterkloof. They kiss, but in a friendly way. Al Bashir lifts his robe, boards a plane and takes off. Murder accused Christopher Panayiotou and Zwelethu Mthethwa run onto the tarmac. PANAYIOTOU: What about us? ZUMA: No, not you. […]