The Daily Discourse

This morning we are joined by an Anthropologist, who will use information based on known and recorded history, of the origins and scattering/travels/displacement of the various species of mankind. According to her, this will assist us with the issue of land and race can be settled in an undisputable manner and peace can once more prevail. GUEST: Erissa Jooste, Who is an Anthropologist

Political parties are not private entities that can do as they wish in the management of their internal affairs, this according to political analyst, Mpumelelo Mkhabela. Last week the Western Cape High Court found that the DA violated its own constitution in terminating Cape Town Mayor, Patricia De Lille's party membership. Mkhabela says the judgment entrenches in our constitutional democracy the...

The Steinhoff saga, possibly the biggest case of corporate fraud in South African business history, has dominated financial and general news since the company’s share price collapsed on 5 December 2017. According to the University Of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) the overall aim of this mini case study is not to further discredit Steinhoff or any specific individuals, but rather to distil bus...

Time now for our regular Friday feature "The Wind Down". As per usual on a Friday we end of on a 'high note'. Today we profile Bekezela Bothwell Nkomo, a Zimbabwean-born singer and guitarist, based in Johannesburg. Nkomo, who goes by his first name Bekezela, in 2010, while doing a part-time job working as a waiter in Sandton, composed his hit song "bekezela", a song about a long distant relationsh...

Are South African men are homophobic? In recent months we have seen a spate of discrimination and violence against the LGBT community and uproar on social media over the Film and Publication Board's reclassification of the controversial movie Inxeba: The Wound, calling it an act of homophobic censorship. And in 2017, a report by the South African Institute of Race Relations, revealed how the Easte...

The South African Savings Institute (SASI), launched its traditional Savings Month Campaign at The Venue, in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, on Wednesday (27 June 2018). The theme for this year's National Savings Month, which runs for the month of July, is "Employer Assisted Saving". Savings Month was designed to remind consumers to strive towards financial freedom and cultivate a culture of saving. F...

Which language should be used to teach initial literacy? Recently, there has been a lot of debate and discussion about this question, since children In South Africa, come from a variety of language backgrounds, thus many factors need to be considered before making a decision. Today we will speak to Molteno, Institute for Language and Literacy, about their Breakthrough to Literacy programme, a moth...

Civil society group Right2Know is set to launch "SPOOKED", a new report on surveillance of journalists in South Africa. This latest R2K report which will be released on the fourth of July, looks at a range of case studies of journalists who appear to have been spied on, to unpack what happened, how it happened, and which parties appear to be responsible. For more on this we are now joined by.... G...

Mining unions are calling for amendments to the Mine Health and Safety Act (MHSA), after yet another death at the Khomanani shaft at Sibanye-Stillwater's Driefontein operations. The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) is also calling for urgent intervention, saying the current spate of deaths at Sibanye-Stillwater is a crime against humanity and that the act must be changed so...

Helen Zille's recent article From the Inside: What is Racism? Has sparked heated debate on social media, with black South Africans taking to Facebook and Twitter, to state that Helen Zille has no right to decide what racism is and what's not. Zille says "this is a very difficult and vexing question to answer, but perhaps the application of the 3D test will shed some light on this highly emotive an...

There has been widespread debate on social media around the issue of "slay queens", "blessers" and prostitution. In a viral video shared on social media, under the hash tag "#DoYouBoo", actress Koketso Mothuping, who was inspired by the recent conversations, called on people to stop judging women who prostitute themselves. Koketso Mothuping says the objective of the “DoYouBoo” campaign is to tackl...

As of 2015, the five BRICS countries represent over 3.6 billion people, or about 41% of the world population; all five members are in the top 25 of the world by population, and four are in the top 10. Countries that do not take care of their youth do not have a future, thus the future of BRICS depends on a cooperative focus on youth development. Next month South Africa is hosting the BRICS summit...

Time now for our SME Feature: Last week marked the official launch of the first annual SMME Business Plan competition. The competition is aimed at assisting potential entrepreneurs who need financial injection as well as non-financial business development support to take their businesses to the next level. For more on the competition, I am now joined in studio by… (3 Guests in studio): 1. Siyabong...

Demographic changes such as aging populations, increasing economic participation of women in the economy, and the challenges of balancing working and family life in urban areas has contributed to greater demand for domestic workers, most of whom are female. In parallel we have calls for a minimum wage and a living wage - nowhere is this more pertinent than in the domestic work sector, where there...

COPE President Mosiuoa Lekota says expropriation of land without compensation will take the country "back to war". Yesterday Lekota was forced to move from his front seat at the parliamentary public hearings into land expropriation, in Limpopo, following a heated disagreement with EFF leader, Julius Malema. Lekota says the EFF's ideas around expropriation of land without compensation are disastrou...

In an attempt to address the Skills Development Gap in South Africa, Salesian Institute Youth Projects of South Africa, is calling on South Africans to change the story of the country’s unemployed youths’ lives with an appeal campaign asking people to make even the smallest donation, which will help fund programmes so that the youth can maximize their future potential. Guest: Richard Rayne, iLearn...

According to the World Bank, half of South Africa's urban population lives in townships and informal settlements, accounting for a large portion of this country's population. Given these semantics, it's no surprise that 34% of working age citizens reside in townships and informal settlements. As further proof of this market's impact, the Gauteng MEC for economic development, agriculture and rural...

For over a century, South Africa’s economy has been built around mining and agriculture. Millions of black workers gave of their sweat and blood for very little in return in these industries while the economy grew and the big bosses, mainly foreign and local white monopoly capital, profited handsomely. Since the late 1980’s the mining sector has shrunk and thousands of workers were laid off, many...

Some PAC factions met over the past weekend to discuss the issue of unity and also to come up with strategies that are aimed at healing one of the oldest liberation movements in the country. GUESTS: 1. Luthando Mbinda, President of the PAC 2. Narius Moloto, President of the PAC (In studio) 3. Letlapa Mphahlele, former president of the PAC (In studio)

Time now for the African Perspective, as customary on a Tuesday we profile an African country, today the spotlight is on Botswana, a country that is relatively free of corruption and one of Africa's most stable countries, with the longest continuous multi-party democracy. The country has also had its share of problems; it once had the world's highest rate of HIV-Aids infection. The country is form...

In a country like ours where reconciliation is needed, do we really need a gathering of this kind? What were the organisers thinking and what informed this concept? GUEST: Chumani Maxwele, UCT #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall member (The student movement that is organising The Decolonial Winter School at UCT)

He is described as the man who gave a helping hand and shelter to Zimbabwean President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, when his life was under threat, from the country's former president, Robert Mugabe, in November 2017. Zimbabwe suffered high levels of inflation and economic meltdown under decades of iron-fisted rule by Mugabe. So who is this man this that came to Mnangagwa’s aid? The man I am speaking of i...

In reaction to President Ramaphosa’s announcement of expropriation without compensation, AfriForum notified Parliament in writing that it would consult its legal team regarding the option to declare the process entailing that Section 25 of the Constitution be amended to empower the state to expropriate property without compensation as illegal. The civil rights organisation also expressed its objec...

According to a new study, published this week in PLOS Medicine by Andrew Kunzmann of Queen's University Belfast, and colleagues, the risk of mortality, and of developing a number of cancers, is lowest in light drinkers consuming an average of less than one drink per day across their lifetime, and the risk of some cancers increases with each additional drink per week. Dr Andrew Kunzmann joins us no...

The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) warns that the 2018 Draft Mining Charter, is still profoundly flawed and continues to choke on investment. The Institute says though the Charter is better than its predecessor, it still falls far short of the regulatory framework required for a thriving mining sector capable of boosting economic growth and job creation. The latest Liberty report from the IRR p...