There were almost farcical scenes when the Sudanese president attended a summit in Johannesburg at the invitation of the African Union, then disappeared during dinner after resounding calls from human rights groups for South Africa to uphold its obligation as a member of the ICC to detain him in line with the outstanding arrest warrant. The ruling African National Congress party holds a majority of seats, and its parliament office welcomed the decision to leave the court, saying “the ICC has allowed non-member states to dictate and interfere with its work to suit their own imperialist agendas.”

South Africa’s announcement follows a dispute last year over a visit by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur. Justice Minister Michael Masutha told reporters in Pretoria that the court was “inhibiting South Africa’s ability to honor its obligations relating to the granting of diplomatic immunity.”

“There is a view in Africa that the ICC in choosing who to prosecute has seemingly preferred to target leaders in Africa,” Masutha added to AFP. "South Africa's proposed withdrawal from the International Criminal Court shows startling disregard for justice from a country long seen as a global leader on accountability for victims of the gravest crimes," said Dewa Mavhinga, the NGO's Africa division senior researcher. The country's department of justice said via Twitter that South Africa was "hindered" by certain parts of the Rome Statute, primarily the one that "compels South Africa to arrest persons who may enjoy diplomatic immunity under customary international law, who are wanted by the ICC for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, to surrender such persons to the International Criminal Court." Earlier this month Burundi said it would withdraw from the court, and Namibia and Kenya have also raised the possibility. The government was facing a possible defeat in the Constitutional Court next month over the issue, but said that Friday's decision meant its legal battle would be dropped. “We were called as country to arrest and prosecute a sitting head of state and the natural consequence would have been forced regime change in that country by South Africa,” Justice Minister Masutha told AFP. Of the ten ICC probes since 2002, nine have been into African countries and one into Georgia, though most ICC cases have been referred to the court by African governments themselves. The push among some African countries to withdraw from the court began after it indicted Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on charges of crimes against humanity over 2007 postelection violence in which more than 1,000 died.
South Africa formally begins the process of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court amid a dispute over the country's refusal to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir at last year's African Union summit in Johannesburg.