The Daily Discourse

22 ON SLOANE is the largest startup campus in Africa. The campus offers disruptive startups and innovative SMEs a complete turnkey solution to scale, from the initial idea all the way to commercialisation, funding opportunities and access to markets. Its aim is to nurture the entrepreneurial mindset, ensure their sustainability, and explore development of new industries and contribute towards job...

Cabinet has approved the decision by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, to designate the Atlantis Special Economic Zone in Atlantis Industrial Area, outside Cape Town in the Western Cape Province. The designation of the Atlantis SEZ follows that of the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone and is intended to promote industrial development along the West Coast Corridor. A Special...

South Africans will have to reimagine the possibility of community if they want to live together peacefully in this country, this according to Amanda Gouws, a professor of Political Science at Stellenbosch University. She says citizens need to continue to understand the impetus of reconciliation that is embodied in the Constitution. They cannot afford to forget this and that they owe it to late fo...

Yesterday members of social housing advocacy group Reclaim the City have occupied a prime piece of land in Foreshore. Several shacks were been erected on the land. According to Reclaim the City's Nkosikhona Swaartbooi the land they occupied used to be a public land that is now kept by the wealthiest company and this land symbolizes the problems that we are facing in Cape Town. GUEST: Nkosikhona Sw...

Historical evidence dispels the notion that LGBT people as well as alternative gender expressions and identities are alien to African culture, this according to Gerbrandt van Heerden, an analyst at the Institute of Race Relations (IRR). He says Tanzania's recent intensified efforts to clamp down on the country's queer community highlights the risk of statements by Africa's political, business and...

The Rand has risen on the news of South Africa's exit from recession. Stats Sa announced today that the country had recording a 2-point- 2 percent economic growth for the third quarter, ending the technical recession. The positive growth was largely driven by manufacturing, finance and transport. The Rand has firmed up against a basket of currencies and is up by around ten cents against the dollar...

Since 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) has consistently captured the majority of black working class voters. Consequently it has been the ruling party since the first democratic elections. But in recent years it has suffered a major credibility crisis due to its brutal repression of working class strikes and protests, lack of service delivery to poor communities, mismanagement and corrupt...

We continue our discussion around the NHI. Yesterday we spoke Health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, who has condemned those who have criticized the speed at which the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill is being processed, stating that they want to “delegitimize” the process. This follows criticism by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), SECTION27, Rural Health Advocacy Project and other civil org...

Pupils at centre of 2015 mass copying scandal are fighting for their matric results to be released. The prolonged battle between the Department of Education and Mashiyamahle High School in Ndwedwe is still ongoing, with the pupils demanding the release of their original results that were withheld for four years due to allegations of cheating. GUEST: Basic Education Department spokesperson, Elijah...

President Cyril Ramaphosa, has announced Advocate Shamila Batohi as the new National Director of Public Prosecutions. Advocate Batohi, is the former deputy director of Public Prosecutions in KwaZulu Natal, she has also worked for the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a legal advisor for the prosecutor. On the Talking Point this morning we are asking you; will Advocate Shamila Batohi, our new N...

It’s not our Friday Wind down, so you can be forgiven for thinking it’s a Friday today. It’s a Tuesday but we decided to profile a music powerhouse this morning, Grammy Award winning, R&B and soul royalty, Anthony Hamilton, who is in the country. He now joins me in studio… GUEST: Grammy Award winning, R&B and soul musician, Anthony Hamilton

A study conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has found that close to 30 percent of HIV positive people, who are virally unsuppressed, are resistant to antiretroviral drugs. These are people in whom the disease can be detected. Some of the respondents are resistant to one and others to two drugs on the first set of ARV's used in South Africa. These are some of the findings of the...

: More than half of middle-income consumers in South Africa spend their entire monthly salary in five days or less after receiving it. This is according to data from FNB's Retail segment. The data categorizes middle-income consumers as those who earn a gross monthly income of between R7, 000 up to R60, 000. GUEST: Dr Christoph Nieuwoudt, CEO of FNB Consumer

Government's plan for a universal health coverage bill - the National Health Insurance will come before Cabinet this week before going to Parliament. Several pro-poor civil society organisations including Section 27 and the Treatment Action Campaign among others have accused Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi of trying to rush through the Bill in parliament, as an election tool for the ANC ahead...

The National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NAFCOC) conference has elected its former chief executive Sabelo Macingwane as its new president. NAFCOC, one of South Africa’s largest business chambers 54th National Conference took place last week at the Durban ICC. The organisation aims to be a voice for the welfare of small businesses. GUEST: Sabelo Macingwane, the newly elected...

GUESTS : Dineo Molomo, from Dineo Properties (Pty) Ltd

Equal Education (EE) recently met with the Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE) and all Eastern Cape Implementing Agents, who oversee the building of schools on behalf of Provincial Education Departments, to discuss EE's new school infrastructure report and measures to ensure that schools are built on time. EE has put together a report on the implementing agents and will be releasing it to...

Last month Chief Justice, Mogoeng Mogoeng, outlined a list of the judicial system's needs for it to be able to function at full capacity, when he was presenting the annual report on Judicial Functions for the 2017/18 financial year, at the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg. Chief Justice Mogoeng stated that the country's judiciary system is underfunded - compared to the other two arms of the st...

Government's plan for a universal health coverage bill - the National Health Insurance will come before Cabinet this week before going to Parliament. Several pro-poor civil society organisations including Section 27 and the Treatment Action Campaign among others have accused Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi of trying to rush through the Bill in parliament, as an election tool for the ANC ahead...

Cosatu has reiterated its calls to create a workers' bank. This comes in the wake of its recent three-day central executive committee meeting, where the federation says the establishment of a workers' bank is imperative at a time where the country is faced with an economic crisis. GUEST: Cosatu president, Zingiswa Losi

Rebuild South Africa (RSA) is a new democratic socialist political party which will contest 2019 general elections. The RSA is a new rising radical and militant Democratic Socialist Political Movement which brings together revolutionary, fearless, radical, and militant activists, workers’ movements, nongovernmental organizations, community-based organizations, lobby-groups under the need to pursue...

In a recent opinion piece she wrote, Dr Eunice Ubomba-Jaswa - Research Manager at the Water Research Commission says Close monitoring of the amount of ARVs and their concentration in the environment must be carried out to mitigate the risk of secondary health issues from long term exposure. Government support for research into the impact on human health of ARVs in the aquatic environment would als...

An interim order is expected to be granted today after judgment was reserved in the land expropriation matter at the High Court in Cape Town between lobby group Afriforum and Parliament. Afriforum is seeking relief to halt the final processing of the Constitutional Review Committee Report which recommended that section 25 of the constitution be amended to expropriate land without compensation. Afr...

The roads next to the High Court in Pietermaritzburg have been closed and security tightened ahead of former president Jacob Zuma's appearance in court this morning. The NPA is likely to request an adjournment to give it time to respond to both Zuma and his co-accused French arms company Thales' application for a permanent stay of prosecution. The charges against Zuma and Thales relate to the more...

The National Assembly has given the thumbs-up to the Child Justice Amendment Bill, which, once passed into law, will raise the age at which a child can be held criminally liable from 10 to 12 years. The child Justice Act came into operation on 1 and it sets out how children in conflict with the law are to be dealt with in the criminal justice system. What implications does this have on justice, pa...