Sunday Times Politics Weekly

In this week’s episode of Sunday Times Politics Weekly, we look at President Cyril Ramaphosa's four-nation diplomatic excursion to West Africa. We discuss the significance of the visit, and whether it marks a change in SA’s relations with West Africa, as well as the rest of the continent and even the globe. We discover that the visit marked a change in the attitude of Ramaphosa towards the West in...

This week SA has experienced confusion and contention, as a result of coalition talks among our political parties. We have also been following this political tension in the dark, as Eskom has yet again imposed large bouts of loadshedding throughout the country. This week our panel of experts and journalists provide an update on the state of the ongoing coalition negotiations. This as the political...

This week on the Sunday Times politics Weekly podcast, our host Mike Siluma is joined by Associate Professor at the WITS School of Governance William Gumede, politics reporter's Kgothatso Madisa and Aphiwe de Klerk to talk coalition progress, after a Watergate local government election. The panel considers the political fallout from the municipal elections, and the horse-trading taking place for c...

This week on Sunday Times Politics Weekly, our panel delves into some pre-election analysis. Ahead of the polls, we will look at which major cities are likely to fall to coalition governments, and how those coalitions are likely to be structured. After that, we will be looking at the sea change in the ANC, which has seen the return to the political forefront of key leaders, including ex-president...

Our big stories on this week's episode of Sunday Times Politics Weekly with Mike Siluma include the factors that have affected the 2021 municipal elections so far, including; mounting political killings, empty promises and the seeming eradication of Covid-19 as a health concern at most political rallies.  We also try to gauge the temperature inside the ANC, where two of its most powerful leaders,...

This week on the Sunday Times Politics Weekly with Mike Siluma, our learned panel considers the uncertain future of the DA in the wake of controversial election posters which have caused tensions within the party. Insiders suggest this may be a litmus test for party leader John Steenhuisen's future at the helm of the opposition party. Also on our menu this week will be the pressure piling up on Ea...

In this week’s episode of Sunday Times Politics Weekly, we try to shed light on the controversy around the Democratic Alliance’s campaign posters in Phoenix, which seemed to endorse racial attacks on black people during the July riots. We try to understand the logic behind the posters themselves and unpack the behind the scenes of the DA's eventual apology and removal of said posters. Our panel al...

In this week’s episode of Sunday Times Politics Weekly we discuss the main party election manifestos- who are the three main parties targeting, what are they promising and what is the likely impact on voter participation levels? Also this week, we take a closer look at the SIU's report on the Digital Vibes scandal and the criticism of the president's handling of the situation along with the valid...

In this week’s episode of Sunday Times Politics Weekly, our panel talks about the importance of public institutions, and the responsibility of political leaders, particularly those in the DA, have to support them. Also this week our panel will try to understand what’s going on in the ANC Alliance, following Cosatu’s decision to, again, support the ANC in the municipal elections. Hosted by Simpleca...

This week on Sunday Times Politics Weekly, our host Mike Siluma and his all female panel, discuss the culture of violence which has entrenched itself in SA's politics, about which not much is being done. The panel also contemplate the impact of the Covid pandemic on the forthcoming municipal elections, with a particular focus on how it has altered the face of campaigning in the country.  Hosted by...

This week on Sunday Times Politics Weekly, we start our chat by shining the spotlight on one of the most important institutions of our democracy, the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC). The IEC has been the subject of controversy because of its handling of preparations for the coming municipal elections. We also try to understand the implications of the medical parole given to former president Jacob...

This week on the Sunday Times Politics Weekly podcast, we unpack the ANC’s electoral crisis, where the party has failed to register local election candidates in a number of localities, some quite important for its performance. With our panel, we’ll try to understand how the party could get things so wrong, after so many years of successful campaigning. After that we’ll look at government’s efforts...

The group discuss the fate of former president Jacob Zuma, whose foundation is asking for donations from you and I to help service his mounting legal fees. This while SA’s unemployment rate has surged to the highest on a global list of 82 countries monitored by Bloomberg. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for...

This week on Sunday Times Politics Weekly, we focus on the state of our State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) , which have proven time and time again to be a thorn in the side of SA's tax payers. After that we’ll cast our eye to the other big story of the week, the unpopular election of NC MP Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula as the new speaker of the National Assembly. She was elected by 199 MPs, beating DA candi...

In this week’s episode of Sunday Times Politics Weekly, host Mike Siluma speaks to the head of the ANC’s National Electoral Committee, Kgalema Motlanthe, about the party’s plan to improve the quality of its candidates in the forthcoming local elections. Motlanthe, a former president of the country and deputy president of the ANC, also talked about the importance of local government in our democrac...

Topping our conversation this week on Sunday Times Politics Weekly, is the fate of former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize. You’ll remember that, despite allegations of impropriety, having come thick and fast against him, he hung on to his position, as if his life depended on it, only to resign yesterday just hours before President Cyril Ramaphosa was set to announce a cabinet reshuffle. What then, we...

On this week's episode of Sunday Times Politics Weekly, we will be looking at the increasing calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to reshuffle his cabinet, in light of the state’s rather ham-handed response to the recent looting and unrest, which cost much in terms of lives and damage to our economy. We’ll also be touching on the government’s recently announced economic interventions, to turn thing...

This week on Sunday Times Politics Weekly, we discuss money in our politics, more specifically the high court’s decision to keep sealed the CR17 funding details, information on the funding of Cyril Ramaphosa’s campaign for the ANC presidency. We ask, what is the decision’s affect on transparency and the role of money in our politics? After that, we’ll try to make sense of the apparent broken telep...

In this episode of Sunday Times Politics Weekly, there can only be one topic worth delving into; this week we focus all our attention on SA's current looting crisis and how it came about. Was it organised? Is there a political agenda, who may be complicit and would pardoning former president Jacob Zuma escalate or calm the situation?   We delve into all this and much more in this week's episode. ...

It's arguable that this week has been one of the most important in the political history of democratic South Africa. The arrest of former president Jacob Zuma was seen as a representation of the tussle between the rule of law and the political elite. But what does Zuma's arrest mean for the ANC as a ruling party and political structure. In this week's Sunday Times Politics Weekly, our host Mike Si...

Supporters of former president Jacob Zuma fired gunshots in the air as they led a motorcade from Eshowe to his rural homestead of Nkandla in northern KwaZulu-Natal to lend him support on Thursday. This after a momentous Constitutional Court judgment sentencing him to 15 months in prison for contempt of court. In this episode of Sunday Times Politics Weekly, we dive head-first into the former presi...

In this week's episode of Sunday Times Politics Weekly, we ask the question: is SA on the brink of becoming a failed state?  We speak to Associate Professor in the School of Governance at Wits University William Gumede, about the state of local governance and the collapse of basic service delivery. The conversation outlines how crucial local governance is to service delivery, job creation, investm...

This week's top political stories have revolved around the all mighty Rand. It's no secret that SA's economy has been under strain and it seems that everyone - from paupers to politicians - have been trying to recover.  This week on Sunday Times Politics Weekly we discuss the ruling party's shrinking purse. This after scores of disgruntled staffers took to the streets at the party’s headquarters,...

Another week passes in SA, and with it another Covid-19 corruption allegation rears its ugly head, this time in relation to the mass sanitising of Gauteng schools in 2020. The presses are still hot with the news of health minister Zweli Mkhize’s special leave over the controversial R150m Digital Vibes contract. As the country grew accustomed to that news, yet another allegation of fraud and corrup...

There can be little doubt that the ANC is currently negotiating its way through a crisis. Consistent infighting, ideological rifts and corruption allegations seem to be the norm for the party.  In this episode of Sunday Times Politics Weekly, we consider what it means to be an ANC member, what turmoil in the ANC means for the rest of SA and whether the party has any viable leaders to take them int...