South Africa is considering changing its law so that it has the power to decide whether or not to arrest a leader wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), said Deputy Minister Obed Bapela.

The comments come amid intense speculation about whether South Africa will maintain its invitation to Russian President Putin to visit the country in August.

The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Putin over the war in Ukraine. South Africa had already invited him to take part in a summit of BRICS leaders. Russia has not said whether Putin intends to attend the summit.

Meanwhile, Pretoria also granted diplomatic immunity to the Russian officials present, something its foreign affairs department described as normal procedure.

The aim of Brics is to strengthen ties between the nations that make it up - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

"In June, we will present the bill in parliament," said Obed Bapela, deputy minister in the South African presidency.

Through the law, South Africa "will give itself exceptions on who to arrest and who not to arrest," said Bapela.

Under current laws, South Africa is obliged to arrest Putin if he arrives on its shores, as it is a member of the ICC.

But South Africa has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, insisting that it wants to remain neutral.

The ICC issued its warrant for Putin in March, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes - although Moscow has rejected these allegations.

South Africa's main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has filed a court application to force the authorities to arrest Putin if he arrives in August.

Bapela said that South Africa is also writing to the ICC about a waiver.

This refers to Article 98 of the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the court in 2002.

While Article 27 says that no one is immune from prosecution by the ICC, Article 98 seems to suggest that the ICC could not ask South Africa to arrest the Russian leader unless Russia agreed to waive Putin's immunity.

The deputy minister also criticized the ICC for its "double standards", saying that Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first democratically elected president, would have been disappointed by the war crimes tribunal.

"We never thought that the ICC we have today would be what it is. They never indicted Tony Blair, they never indicted [George W] Bush for the deaths of Iraqis," he said, referring to the former leaders of the UK and the US and the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

"Mandela would have said that inequality, the incoherence of the ICC, is a problem."

Bapela also mentioned past examples of exemptions from international justice, such as the UK's decision not to extradite General Augusto Pinochet in 1998. (BBC)