Putin will not go to Brics summit in Brazil due to ICC arrest warrant, Kremlin aide says
The ICC issued the warrant in 2023, just over a year after Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, accusing Putin of the war crime of deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.
Russia denies allegations of war crimes and the Kremlin, which did not sign the ICC's founding treaty, has dismissed the warrant as null and void.
But it means that Putin needs to weigh the risk he might be arrested if he travels to another country that is a signatory to the ICC treaty.
In 2023 he decided against travelling to one such country, South Africa, for a Brics summit. But last year he was given a red-carpet welcome in Mongolia, even though it is an ICC member state.
Ushakov said Putin would take part via video link in the July 6-7 Brics summit in Brazil.
'This is due to certain difficulties, in the context of the ICC requirement. In that context, the Brazilian government could not take a clear position that would allow our president to participate in this meeting,' Ushakov said.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will travel to the summit to represent Russia. According to media reports, Chinese President Xi Jinping will skip the summit.
Reuters
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The Herald
3 hours ago
- The Herald
You should have withdrawn from GNU: Mbeki's open letter to Steenhuisen
Former president Thabo Mbeki has penned a scathing open letter to DA leader John Steenhuisen, saying he would have found it logical for the DA to withdraw from the GNU. Mbeki labelled Steenhuisen and DA federal council chair Helen Zille 'arrogant' after the party's decision to pull out of the national dialogue. In the 11-page letter, Mbeki said it was clear that the DA had serious problems with President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC concerning the functioning of the GNU after Ramaphosa removed deputy minister of trade, industry and competition Andrew Whitfield of the DA. 'It is also obvious that despite this you and the DA decided that you will not withdraw from the GNU and it is established that instead with the final straw ... you and the DA have decided not to participate in the national dialogue,' he said. Mbeki criticised Zille's statements that the dialogue was an ANC campaign strategy. He said the dialogue had absolutely nothing to do with Zille's 'fertile imagination of an ANC's 2026 election campaign, or what you called an ANC-run national dialogue'. 'And as you know, Zille, and therefore presumably the DA's view, is that the absence of the latter from the 'Parliament of the People' will make the Parliament 'a sham' and 'a hollow exercise'. It is very good that, at last, Zille has openly expressed her eminently arrogant and contemptuous view of the masses of the people, that these cannot think and plan their future correctly, without the DA. 'That, presumably, is also the view of the federal leader of the DA who must have felt very proud when he announced that effective immediately, the DA will therefore 'have no further part in this process. We will also actively mobilise against it.' I hope that in time the DA will explain to the people why it signed up to the commitment in the statement of intent of the parties in the GNU that parties commit to an all-inclusive national dialogue process, whereas, as Zille said, she had been very opposed to it from the start.' Mbeki said he would like to assure Steenhuisen that representatives of South Africans would attend the dialogue, adding that he was confident the dialogue would make historic and seminal contribution to the efforts to chart a way forward for the country. 'I sincerely hope that all political leaders and the parties they lead will recognise the inalienable reality that the people are our country's sovereign authority ... As I have said I have no doubt that the DA acts against its own direct interests when it decides to isolate itself from its sovereign authority when the latter decides to engage in a national dialogue to determine our countries (sic) future,' he said. He said the national dialogue was borne (sic) out of a 2016 agreement by the FW de Klerk, Thabo Mbeki, Helen Suzman, Desmond and Leah Tutu, Kgalema Motlanthe and Robert Sobukwe foundations who formed the National Foundations Dialogue Initiative with the dialogue as one of its objectives. He said while the ANC had agreed to a national dialogue, he advised the party that civil society would not agree to participate in the process led by the ANC and the GNU, proposing that instead the matter should be led by foundations. Ramaphosa then constituted a group of 4/5 people to engage the foundations, he said. He added that the national dialogue preparatory task team, made up of Nedlac executives, the foundations and four presidency officials, will cease to exist after it hands over the reins to the national convention in August. Mbeki said the ministry of finance should provide the funds necessary to hold the dialogue over and above donations from interested parties. 'In fact, the costs of the preparations to date have been borne by the foundations themselves while the day-to-day work relating to the national dialogue has been carried out by volunteers who are committed to building a better South Africa. These are men and women who are ready to lead the way in ensuring that citizens claim their agency,' he said. He said that the preparatory team believed that various matters would arise during the dialogue which will require action from government without having to wait for the dialogue's conclusion. This, he said, was why Ramaphosa appointed an interministerial committee to be on standby to act on those matters. 'It would seem to me that the DA is also saying that the people have forfeited the confidence to the DA. Perhaps the DA ... should distribute leaflets along the Nelson Mandela Boulevard in Cape Town telling the people that they should redouble their efforts to win back the confidence of the DA or face dissolution,' he said.
The Herald
3 hours ago
- The Herald
Parties support Nkabane's education vote, staying out of ANC/DA spat
The DA was warned against diverting attention away from the crucial matters of the higher education sector, with parties saying they refuse to be "swindled" into the DA's spat with the ANC. This follows a recent announcement that the DA intends to boycott the budget votes in departments led by controversial ANC ministers such as Dr Nobuhle Nkabane and Thembi Simelane, who leads human settlements. The DA has called for their axing. The fury of the GNU's second-biggest party was prompted by the ousting of their former deputy minister of trade, industry and competition, Andrew Whitfield, last week. However, parties say they will not allow the budget vote to stand in the way of the department's ability to continue with its functions. EFF MP Sihle Lonzi led the charge, saying that while they do not see eye to eye with Nkabane, they will not be hoodwinked by GNU's trouble in paradise. 'We are perplexed that the DA only discovered corruption when their deputy minister was fired. Before the firing, they were singing praises about the GNU, today they want to behave like an opposition. The people of South Africa are not stupid and can see through your lies. We are not going to waste time on this fake fight between the DA and the ANC. 'The DA will vote for this budget which funds each and every department, including the department of higher education and human settlements. The DA's narrative is a deliberate distortion at best and sheer ignorance at worst. The EFF has been at the forefront of confronting the crisis at higher education even when those who are making the most noise now stood on the sidelines.' The highly anticipated higher education budget vote took place in the mini plenary of the National Assembly on Thursday. Lonzi told the plenary the EFF will not fall for the propaganda of the DA that it can support certain budgets and not other departments, clarifying that the DA's stance is not going to be effective. 'There are four key budget votes in parliament. The first is the fiscal framework and revenue proposals which gives budget bills the blueprint and sets the economic policy direction, which the DA voted in support of. "The second is the division of revenue bill which deals with the appropriation of national and provincial government, the DA voted in support and it passed. "We are now dealing with the appropriations bill which allocates funds to government departments and programmes — the DA cannot cherry pick. Voting for the appropriation bill means approving the entire budget inclusive of all the departments.' Lonzi gave the minister seven steps to turn around the embattled education sector, which included the 'fixing' of NSFAS or complete removal of the controversial institution. 'You must rescue higher education from the collapse. There should be no reason NSFAS still struggles to pay students. We have about 19-million people on SASSA and an additional 9-million people receiving the R350 grant every single month. NSFAS only deals with an odd one-million students, why is there no efficient payment system that will pay students, institutions and accommodation directly?' He added that the minister ought to blacklist corrupt board members. 'You must clean up the SETAs. You must blacklist corrupt board members and CEOs, not this thing you are doing now where when someone is suspended in one SETA, you take them [into] another SETA,' he said. DA MP Karabo Khakhau who led the charge against Nkabane said she was not surprised by Nkabane's actions, saying that it is a result of the culture of the political party that has deployed her. 'To them, corruption is their daily bread. Living in a corruption-free South Africa is a threat against the very core of their existence. Unlike the other political parties who have today pledged their support to this budget under Nkabane, the DA has not forgotten about the people of this country. 'Our loyalty remains to nothing but the people. South Africa can count on the DA to fight for them and for justice against corruption. The real enemy of progress against young people is Nkabane - it is the ANC for protecting her and corruption, it is President Ramaphosa for refusing to fire her, it is the political parties that think R142bn is safe in the hands of Dr Nkabane.' She told Nkabane that she should voluntarily vacate office if she feels strongly about serving the young people of this country. 'Committing fraud under statutory offence under section 26 of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament Act is not only spitting on the graves of the forefathers of this democracy, but it is spitting in the faces if the young people whom you've failed to lead. It is a spit in the face of your DHET staff that you have sacrificed at the altar of your own protection. 'You said that you are dedicating this budget to the memory of the fallen heroes and heroines of the PSET sector. So I dare you, do the right thing in honour of them and resign! Detox the department of the toxicity of your poor leadership, arrogance, effective allergy to honesty and commitment to no-one but yourself. You don't need to wait for President Ramaphosa to fire you, if you mean it that you are a servant of the leadership of the people, serve and be honest and resign.' Build One South Africa's Mmusi Maimane argued that the sector had bigger problems, adding that the starting point was to clear the air around Nkabane's alleged wrongdoing. 'On leadership, we can debate whether this is the right minister or not the right minister. The issue of whether the minister misled parliament needs to be brought to a parliamentary committee and an investigation must be sought so we can get to the bottom of this. It's not a violation of anyone's feelings, it's about a constitutional obligation which must be followed.' He added that the bigger picture is to understand that the ambition of freedom could not be delinked to the sector overseen by Nkabane. 'You cannot delink the ambition of freedom from the ambition of higher education. We focused on the intrinsic nature of education but we've never linked it to our economic outputs. When we derive a plan for what South Africa needs to look like in the future, we become clear about the kind of graduates that we want to produce. 'This department progressively oversees the number of black students declining who go into higher education, but students who are Asian and Indian are increasing. It tells you that our empowerment story has been delinked from higher education.' He urged the ministry to prioritise access to higher education to fully commit to the transformation of the country. 'From a capacity point of view, it's clear that infrastructure build in higher education is poor. We are talking about a shortage of 500,000 beds in this country. If we are going to see the doors of learning open, as is the ambition, we need to fund the capacity thereof. 'It's now common cause that NSFAS is not an efficient institution for managing how many students we want to get in. It's either we reform NSFAS or we shut out the middle man.' Rise Mzansi's Makashule Gana told the committee that he refuses to take part in the scandal and spectacle that has brought attention to the ministry. 'Education, especially higher education, is not a luxury, it is a path out of poverty and is the foundation of a prosperous nation. The department's R142bn budget is substantial but not enough, because our crisis is not just funding — its spatial, access, and a system that is failing the poor. "Nowhere is that failure more glaring than in NSFAS. I'm a product of it, many of us are, but what we see today is heartbreaking because hyenas and tenderpreneurs are circling what should be a lifeline for our students. That R95bn for NSFAS has to go to students, not middlemen.' Despite the minister conceding that there is a R1.4bn deficit in the universities' budget, she vowed that the NSFAS budget would 'not be sufficient to meet the growing demand for access to higher education". NSFAS funding sits at R48.7bn this year, with further increases planned in the coming years. Nkabane's budget covered key higher education sectors, detailing that TVET colleges are to receive R14bn, up from R13.1bn last year. The combined allocation for Sector Education and Training Authorities and the National Skills Fund is R26bn. Meanwhile, university education rises from R91.7bn in 2024 to R96bn this year alone. Nkabane said he will not dignify direct attacks and will focus on the task at hand: serving the people of South Africa.
The Herald
3 hours ago
- The Herald
'People want to push their own agenda': Hlophe confirms Ndhlela's sacking
Dismissing claims that the party is in crisis because of Ndhlela's dismal, Hlophe said: 'The party is not falling apart. In the caucus there are people who want to push their own agendas and you know that by now.' The so-called 'December 16 faction' in parliament has accused Makhubele of making unilateral decisions and dividing the caucus. Responding to the criticism, Makhubele said ideological differences were to be expected in a new political party. '[The] MK Party is one year old and everybody who is in MK Party, including myself, come from various parties. Whether there are those that joined [on] December 16 [when] the party started [in] 2023 or those like us who joined post elections, all of us come from parties that had different postures on many issues pertaining to ideology or policies,' she said, adding they all decided to rally behind the MK Party despite their initial stances. Makhubele remained mum on Ndhlela disrespecting her leadership. TimesLIVE
