The Daily Discourse

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) says it is considering suing the formerly Gupta-owned mining group Tegeta Exploration and Resources for the funds already paid over to it in the now invalidated coal contract with Eskom. Yesterday, the SIU secured a high court order setting aside the three-point-seven-billion-rand contract. The agreement was signed in 2015 to supply coal for ten years to the Ma...

Protesters blocked several roads with burning tyres and rocks in Klipspruit, Soweto. A Putco bus was set alight. Some reports indicate that the residents are calling for the local councilor to step down. There’s also unconfirmed reports of calls for a total shutdown tomorrow and Wednesday. To get an understanding of some of the reasons behind the protest, Guest: Seth Mazibuko – Spokesperson for th...

Former rebel leader, Riek Machar, has been sworn in as South Sudan's first vice president during a ceremony in Juba on Saturday. On Thursday, President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar agreed to form a unity government, ending years of fighting. raising hopes that this will now see an end to six years of civil conflict that has left thousands dead and more than a million displaced. It has been a long jo...

We have seen in these past weeks how protests at universities have turned violent with students burning and damaging property. This has now led to cconcerned parents of students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, forming a crisis committee to deal with the worsening situation at the institution. The start of the academic year has been marred by violent student protests over issues such as histori...

Today on our Friday Wind Down we feature former DA leader Mmusi Maimane, the Barrack Obama of Soweto. We don’t really need much introduction on him as he’s been a major player in our national politics. Now that he is no longer DA leader, what is he focusing on? GUEST: Mmusi Maimane Former leader of the Democratic Alliance

Let’s visit the arts now and talk about movies that reflect our past history and how communities would do stuff under the nose of the apartheid regime. Here is a movie entitled “Letters of hope.” It is set in 1976 apartheid South Africa, and tell the story of 16-year-old Jeremiah, who really wants to be a policeman and can’t understand why his father won’t let him. GUEST: Aphiwe Mkefe - Lead actor...

The Portfolio Committee on Health will today undertake the last leg of public hearings on the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill in Soshanguve, Gauteng. The Gauteng hearings follow nationwide public hearings in which participants contributed to strengthening the Bill. The NHI Bill is intended to achieve universal access to healthcare services in South Africa, which is a constitutional right. GUE...

Let’s focus now on issues of occupational health. What is involved and how big a role does it play in the wellbeing of workers? Also how important is it? GUEST: Dr Louis Ellis – General Practitioner and Occupational Medical Practitioner in the Northern Cape

Interested in getting into the business of real estate or property development? Or perhaps you first want to learn about some different aspects of the real estate industry? Well this morning on our business feature we are going to look at Investing in real estate and starting a rental property business. For many people, becoming a landlord is the foundation of their real estate business model. By...

National Taxi Council, Santaco, has welcomed recommendations by the Competition Commission that government should reconsider subsidies for the taxi industry. The Commission released a provisional report on public transport pricing. It found that trains and buses are well subsidized while the taxi industry gets as little as one-percent and nothing for metered taxis. To discuss this issue and find o...

Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says the Cape Town municipality will provide temporary accommodation for foreign nationals who will be moved from the Cape Town CBD. The verification process has begun following the recent Western Cape High Court ruling. The city will remove the immigrants from the streets and sidewalks around Greenmarket Square, in line with the court order. The foreign nati...

Westbury has been in the news for all the wrong reasons last year and the year before. The community made headlines when community members decided to stand up and do something about the crime and gangs in the area. Well today we have a good story coming out of there. A good example of making a difference in one’s community. Youngsters starting soccer team against all odds. GUEST: Brandon Morris, w...

We now speak to one of our listeners Koekie Saint-Quinton, from Pretoria, a mother who is concerned about her son, who is living in Nanyang, China, an area approximately 400km away from Wuhan, where the Coronavirus was first detected. The Coronavirus now termed COVID-19 is a virus that causes severe lung disease. The coronavirus has infected over 70 000 people in China as of 16 February, with 1,77...

Professor Adam Habib, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand, has resigned and will leave the University at the end of December. He has accepted an offer to serve as the Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) based in London as from 1 January 2021. GUEST: Professor Adam Habib, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Witwat...

Gender activists are waiting for an apology from President Cyril Ramaphosa for government's failure to adequately address the rate of gender-based violence in the country. They are expressing anger over the manner in which accusations of GBV were raised during yesterday's State of the Nation debate - after ANC MP, Boy Mamabolo, accused EFF leader Julius Malema of abusing his wife. Malema denied it...

This morning as we mark black history month, we turn our focus on the Trans-Atlantic-Slavery. Last year mark 400 years of the dreadful slave trade. What were the dynamics involved and what should we know about it? GUEST : Izak Khomo – Presenter/Producer of Spotlight Africa at Channel Africa

The City of Cape Town has welcomed the Cape High Court ruling that will allow it to enforce its by-laws outside the Central Methodist Church where hundreds of foreign nationals are sheltered. The court yesterday granted the City an interim order to remove the group of foreign nationals living on the pavement outside the church. The City applied for an interdict last year after members of the group...

SABC Education has launched a campaign against Femicide and rape. The year-long campaign aims to raise awareness against the abuse and killing of women. SABC Education says “we need to teach our sons to respect ALL women”. Guest : Neo Nthite, SABC Education marketing manager

The different investments one can make before the end of February which have tax savings benefits. GUEST : Bryan Hirsch, Chairperson of Bryan Hirsch, Colley & Associates (Pty) Limited

Since the controversy around former president FW De Klerk’s comments on apartheid, different views have been coming through mostly in an angry tone. Interestingly, people are starting to link the TRC to this matter and questioning what all of that evidence means and also why the ANC has not acted on the information that came out during the hearings. How does all of this put the spotlight on the TR...

Time now for our regular Monday feature Legally Speaking. This morning we will look at the right to basic education for undocumented children. This after the department of basic education published a national circular notice to all schools to allow undocumented pupils access to education following a landmark judgment by the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda in December, which ruled it was uncons...

Eskom announced yesterday that it will stop rotational loadshedding but the probability of loadshedding during the week remains. Over the weekend the embattled power utility implemented Stage-3 power outages, due to low emergency reserves. Meanwhile Eskom's new CEO, Andre de Ruyter, says he will extend lifestyle audits to lower level staff, in renewed efforts to curb wastage and cleanup the power...

78% of Grade four learners can't read for meaning in South Africa. Nic Spaull, a Senior Researcher at Research on Socio-Economic Policy at Stellenbosch University's Department of Economics says instead of addressing that issue with books and meaningful teacher training, we're instead going to invest in coding and robotics for young children. Nic Spaull was responding to President Cyril Ramaphosa's...

Meanwhile, the Nelson Mandela Foundation says it's time Parliament looked at ways to enact what it calls a 'Hate Law'. The Foundation's CEO, Sello Hatang was reacting to utterances by De Klerk on the SABC last week marking 30 years after Mandela's release and the unbanning of political parties, De Klerk said that he did not "fully" agree with the UN's ruling that apartheid was a crime against huma...

Last week, the ANC came under widespread criticism following the party's defence of the last apartheid president FW De Klerk's presence at the State of the Nation address. In turn, the FW De Klerk foundation then released a statement in which it further reiterated that the former president's statement that he does not agree that apartheid was a crime against humanity. Guest: Mac Maharaj