The International Criminal Court is “dangerous” and South Africa should withdraw from it, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday, defending the government’s decision not to arrest indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

President Jacob Zuma and the ANC have come under fire for allowing Bashir, who faces charges of genocide at the court, to slip out of South Africa through a military air base after attending an African Union summit last week.

“If I was in government, I would say give notice, get out of that, it was not what was envisioned. It is a tool in the hands of the powerful to destroy the weak and it is a court that is focusing on Africa, Eastern Europe and Middle East,” Mantashe said on Talk Radio 702.

“Have nothing to do with that, because it is dangerous.”

The government said it had granted legal immunity to Bashir, along with all delegates attending the AU summit.

Zuma is due to answer questions on Bashir’s departure in the National Assembly on Tuesday. News24