South Africa should withdraw its membership from the International Criminal Court (ICC) should the tribunal not accede to a series of reforms, African National Congress (ANC) MPs said during a heated snap debate on the saga surrounding South Africa’s failure to arrest Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.

Deputy Minister in the Presidency Obed Bapela insisted the African Union summit, which Bashir attended earlier this month, should have been afforded the same status as a meeting of the United Nations (UN) – where leaders have immunity from arrest.

“The demand that South Africa must have arrested president al-Bashir while he’s attending the AU summit illustrates the contempt that some hold on Africa and Africans,” said Bapela.

“We call on the reform of the ICC. We went in voluntarily. The option of going out voluntarily still is open.”

Bapela said membership of the ICC should be made compulsory, which would force other states who are part of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to comply with arrest warrants, and rule out unfair referrals of matters to the ICC by the UNSC.

“The ICC is losing its direction, its credibility,” he said.

“It’s being undermined because not everybody wants to go into it. We are calling on the UN security council to no longer have powers of referring matters to the ICC.”

Bashir was indicted after the matter was referred to the ICC by the UNSC.

Bapela insisted that Bashir’s arrest would undermine the AU’s efforts at bringing about peace in Darfur.

“For these processes to succeed, president Bashir is like FW de Klerk during our processes of negotiation…one of the critical players,” he said.

Lindiwe Zulu, small business development minister, agreed, and confirmed South Africa would never have arrested Bashir, despite a South African court order preventing him from leaving the country.

“Can these members [of the South African Parliament] really think we going to arrest a head of state. They must think again,” Zulu said after explaining that as an AU member state South Africa had to abide by a 2013 decision to suspend the enactment of the arrest warrant for Bashir.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) did not buy the arguments, however, and said President Jacob Zuma and his government was in contempt of court, and should not be let off the hook.

“The ANC government, led by Jacob Zuma, has committed a crime of assisting a wanted man to run from the law,” said DA MP Stevens Mokgalapa.

“This saga has dented our moral standing and now tarnished our previous title as champions of human rights.”

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) chief whip Floyd Shivambu bemoaned what he called the ICC’s unfair treatment of African heads of state, agreeing the ANC should not have acceded to Bashir’s arrest on our shores.

“It must go and arrest these people in their countries of origin. If the ICC wants al-Bashir, they must go fetch him in Khartoum,” he said.

But, Shivambu said government should have found a “more sophisticated way” of dealing with Bashir than defying a court order.

“We do not agree, as the EFF, with the deliberate disregard of the court orders by the ANC government because it sets a precedent for the future defiance of courts in terms of what should happen.”

Bashir, who was attending the African Union summit in Johannesburg, departed for Sudan on June 15, despite a high court order preventing him from leaving South Africa. His departure sent mixed reactions across the country, with opposition parties accusing the government of violating a court order.

Bashir has been indicted by the ICC for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against some of the tribes of Sudan’s western Darfur region. Two warrants of arrest were issued against him in 2009 and 2010. As a member of the ICC, South Africa is obliged to arrest him and surrender him to the ICC.