SOUTH AFRICA confirmed yesterday it was pulling out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) — days after Burundi did the same.

Justice Minister Michael Masutha said the government would soon submit a Bill to parliament for withdrawal from the Hague court which has only ever prosecuted Africans.

A leaked letter from International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane on Thursday invoked withdrawal from the ICC effective after a year.

The Bill will propose that South Africa repeal the Rome Statute that created the court as it is “in conflict and inconsistent with” the country’s diplomatic immunity law.

South Africa came into conflict with the court last June when a local human rights group obtained a court order for the arrest of Sudanese tyrant Omar al-Bashir at an African Union (AU) summit in Johannesburg.

The government contested the ruling while Mr Bashir — whose country is not a member of the ICC — flew home.

Subjecting the leader of another country to prosecution in a South African court or handing the leader over to the ICC would amount to interference in another country’s affairs, Mr Masutha said.

“One cannot think of a more plausible scenario of forced regime change by one country on another,” he said.

Ruling ANC MPs welcomed the move. Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu’s office said: “It is our long-held view that the ICC has long diverted from its mandate of being an independent and objective instrument.

“Instead the ICC has allowed non-member states to dictate and interfere with its work to suit their own imperialist agendas.”

The Communist Party welcomed the decision to pull out, with spokesman Alex Mashilo saying: “Nations are not equal before the ‘international’ law of ICC ‘justice’, as that applies to some but not others.”

ANC MPs called on the African Union to “strengthen its own institutions designed to promote human rights and protect the people of Africa against crimes against humanity.”

On Tuesday Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza signed legislation passed overwhelmingly by parliament last week to quit the court.

Meanwhile Ugandan Deputy Foreign Minister Oryem Okello said yesterday his country was “undecided” on whether to withdraw from the ICC, but it was likely to be a “hot issue” at January’s AU Summit in Ethiopia.

Recently the threat of ICC prosecution has been raised against citizens of other non-members such as Syria, Ukraine and Russia over conflicts with Western proxies.