• SA’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) confirmed that foreign ministers will be granted diplomatic immunity while attending BRICS summits next month.
• The notice was confirmed via a government gazette earlier this week.
• The immunities do not override any warrant that may have been issued by any international tribunal against any attendee, however.

Later this week, specifically 1st and 2nd June, South Africa will play host to the ninth session of the BRICS meeting for foreign ministers in Cape Town, with a larger event happening in August in Johannesburg this year.

Much has been made of South Africa’s involvement in the coalition of emerging markets, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, and China, especially as it pertains to rising geopolitical tensions.

Regardless of these issues, however, foreign ministers attending the aforementioned BRICS summits will be granted full diplomatic immunity, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) confirmed this week.

“The Department of International Relations and Cooperation issued a notice in the government gazette on Diplomatic Immunities and Privileges for the upcoming BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting in Cape Town and BRICS Summit to be held in Johannesburg in August,” DIRCO explained in its official statement.

“This is a standard conferment of immunities that we do for all international conferences and summits held in South Africa irrespective of the level of participation. The immunities are for the conference and not for specific individuals. They are meant to protect the conference and its attendees from the jurisdiction of the host country for the duration of the conference,” it added.

While it remains to be seen what results from the summit later this week, the one in August poses a more interesting prospect. It will serve as the 15th BRICS summit, and is expected to see leaders from all five nations attend.

As tensions between Russia and the global West worsen as a result of the ongoing Ukrainian invasion, as well as animosity between China and the United States showing no signs of easing either, South Africa finds itself in a rather precarious position politically.

As such, the eyes of the world will be on the South African government in August to see how it acts.

“These immunities do not override any warrant that may have been issued by any international tribunal against any attendee of the conference,” the DIRCO announcement concluded, so we will have to wait to see whether the same level of immunity will apply to August’s event in theory or practice.

[Image – CC BY-ND 2.0 GovernmentZA on Flickr]