President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that South Africa has been approached to play a mediation role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Mr Ramaphosa did not say who had made the approach. but said he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday and urged him to seek a mediated solution to the conflict.
“President Putin appreciated our balanced approach. We believe this position enables both parties to subject the conflict to mediation and negotiation. Based on our relations with the Russian Federation and as a member of Brics, South Africa has been approached to play a mediation role,” Mr Ramaphosa posted on Twitter
South Africa’s position on the conflict came under the spotlight last week after it abstained from voting on a UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Ramaphosa said the country abstained because “the resolution did not foreground the call for meaningful engagement”, and accused the UN Security Council
of being unable to discharge its responsibility to maintain peace and security.
He added that South Africa’s response to the war was not an indication that it had no regard for human rights.
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Rwanda mulls imposing Netflix tax – report
The Rwandan authorities are considering a proposal to impose a tax on online services, the New Times website reports quoting an official from the tax collection authority.
The proposed Value Added Tax (VAT) is considered as “a necessary one”, Jean-Louis Kaliningondo of the the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) is quoted as saying.
“When you pay for services such as Netflix, you are using money that you have generated in Rwanda. So, we are asking, why don’t we collect VAT on these services if they are being paid for by our citizens?” he posed.
African countries have increasingly been taxing digital services in efforts to broaden revenue collection.
Last year, Kenya introduced the Digital Service Tax (DST) that imposed a 1.5% flat tax on the value of goods or services sold on digital platforms.
Source: BBC
