Differences within government and the ANC about South Africa's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court could mean that the parliamentary process now under way might yet come to naught - but don't expect much open debate on this before next year's general elections.

There's a quiet shift happening in the ANC regarding its views on the International Criminal Court. While the sentiment that caused the party to resolve to leave the court in the first place still stands, the voices of those who want to effect reform from within, rather than leave, are more dominant.

At the party's lekgotla in late July, discussions in the party's subcommittee on international relations centered on a resolution on the issue made at the African Union summit in January 2018. The resolution followed the uproar that followed Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir's attendance of the AU summit in Johannesburg in July 2015, when civil society groups took the South African government to court for not arresting al-Bashir. As a signatory to the Rome Statute, South Africa was obliged...