South Africa: NGO calls for Putin to be arrested at BRICS Summit

Billboards urging President Cyril Ramaphosa to arrest his Russian counterpart during his anticipated trip to the country in August sprang up on major highways in South Africa on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting by by BRICS foreign ministers on Thursday.

Pretoria is hosting this year's BRICS summit and an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Vladmir Putin has placed South Africa in a diplomatic dilemma. The billboards were paid for by Avaaz, a U.S-based NGO.

On Tuesday, the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party said it had taken legal action to force the government to arrest the Russian President if he were to attend a planned summit in the country.

A member of the ICC, South Africa, which has close diplomatic ties with Moscow, is due to host the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) bloc summit.

South Africa has come under attack from the West for maintaining a neutral stance on the conflict in Ukraine.