SOUTH AFRICA PERSPECTIVE

Pretoria, July 25, 2026. South Africa is closely watching the ousting of Karim Khan, voted out by a large majority of the 125 member states of the International Criminal Court on Friday, as the country is itself engaged in a legal showdown with the Hague-based institution. This is the first time a chief prosecutor of the ICC has been removed from office, according to reports. The 56-year-old British barrister, accused of having a relationship with a colleague and then trying to prevent her from filing a complaint, had already been suspended from his duties in June after a report by the ICC's executive committee concluded that he had committed a "serious fault". He disputes these findings. Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik stated that "it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that his conduct constituted sexual harassment and abuse of power". A motion by Sierra Leone to toughen the removal procedure failed before the vote. For Pretoria, this internal crisis at the ICC comes as the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) has just rejected, as "premature and without legal basis", a complaint filed with the ICC by two Ghanaian officials against the South African state for its alleged inaction during recent violence against undocumented foreigners. Spokesperson Chrispin Phiri cited the principle of complementarity: "the ICC only intervenes when a national judicial system is unable or refuses to act", he recalled, affirming Pretoria's confidence in its own judicial system. Another case, the dropping of charges against Sudanese rebel Abdallah Banda, accused of a 2007 attack on UN peacekeepers in Darfur, illustrates the prosecution's difficulties in gathering evidence, leaving 103 victims without answers after 15 years of waiting.