In the town of Centurion, near the capital Pretoria, several digital posters have sprung up. Created by the international NGO Avaaz, they call on President Cyril Ramaphosa to arrest Vladimir Putin, as required by the ICC, should he visit the country in August to take part in the BRICS summit.

But Pretoria, which maintains close diplomatic relations with Moscow and insists on its "neutrality" in the Ukraine conflict, has not yet indicated whether it would do so.

This possible visit by the Russian president has been agitating South Africa's political class for several days. The Democratic Alliance, the country's main opposition party, claimed on Tuesday to have taken legal action to ensure that Vladimir Putin would be arrested if he set foot in the country.

In April, Cyril Ramaphosa said that the ICC's arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin was putting a "spanner in the works" for South Africa.