The Daily Discourse

In March this year for the Municipal Watch feature, my colleague Oliver Dickson focused on the uThukela District Municipality. They have a huge water crisis. The DA in that part of the world has been exposing this issue for a long time as the municipality keeps promising resident that they are working on solving the problem. Oliver then promised to get them back to find out how far the municipalit...

A patient goes to the doctor. The doctor makes a diagnosis and writes them a script. The next thing they know, the patient is calling their rooms and asking if there’s cheaper medication available because of co-payments. So, they write them another script - only to get a call back from the pharmacy that it’s an S5 and S6 drug, and they need the original script and not an email. Or the patient simp...

This morning, we speak to the Acting Board Chairperson of Eskom to get a sense of the state of the company in recent months. We seek to unpack the energy crisis and the strategy that it will implement to manage the winter period. We will also be covering the new agreements that are being signed with neighbouring countries and the feasible outcome of the recent court case regarding the exemptions....

iThemba LABS is a scientific research centre with facilities at Faure near Cape Town where we broadcasting from,  and on the Wits Campus in Johannesburg. The facility has a long history in nuclear medicine and has been providing the much needed medicine in the fight against cancer treating about 165 000 patients annualy. The launch of the SA Isotope Facility will increase the capacity to provide m...

Nomfundo is a multi-award winning Jazz vocalist, composer and educator. She has released 2 albums under the Universal Music Group. She holds a Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies from UCT, graduated Cum Laude with a dissertation titled: “The Analysis of the Musical Style of Miriam Makeba” (2009). In 2018, Nomfundo was awarded a full academic scholarship by the Henley Business School where she has succ...

Our next guests are launching a study that is looking at the state of literacy among adult South Africans. This project is part of Indlulamithi’s Scenarios 2030. In the study, their researchers asked participants questions ranging from access to libraries, the culture of reading, whether reading takes place in the home when they are children, and the kind of literature being read. We are joined by...

This morning Bryan talks about the draft legislation for the two-pot retirement system which has now been published for public comment…. Guest: Bryan Hirsch – Chairperson of Bryan Hirsch, Colley & Associates

Leadership in the public sector has become a very heavy burden to many of us on a daily basis. We don’t have to think far as load-shedding has become normal to us. Bad services many of you call us about everyday. The situation in Hammanskraal is a recent example of poor public leadership as it has now become a political game while many people have lost their lives. We saw how cabinet minister and...

We speak now to Karabo Mokgonyana who is an a ward-winning legal and development practitioner and programme director for the Sesi Fellowship and Skill Hub. She wrote an article highlighting sexual assault against women job-seekers. One of the things she says is that as much as we focus a lot on GBV, we do not speak enough about the rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment that women face in recr...

Being diagnosed with cancer and being a survivor is an emotional experience. Some people may go through a period of grief before being able to accept their diagnosis. Others may become depressed and anxious. With more than 30% of cancer patients diagnosed with depression, the South African Society of Psychiatrists calls on National Cancer Survivors Day (4 June), for greater awareness of patients s...

The Zondo Commission of Inquiry was one of the most important political developments in modern South African history. The commission sat for years, hearing the evidence of 300 witnesses and gathering a vast quantity of documents. The result is a damning and sometimes searing account of the state take over: how the Gupta family found willing acolytes in the state, and set about systematically looti...

Last week, one of the discussions that were had on our open line was surrounding the rise of vigilanism and mob justice within communities. The recent crime statistics laid bare the state of community safety is in the country. While many say its due to the disillusionment communities have with law enforcement and the justice system, the culture of mob justice and vigilantism is far reaching than m...

Last week on the Municipal Watch we spoke to the different unions around issues pertaining to the Lichtenburg-based Ditsobotla Municipality. Workers there were not paid their salaries for the month of May. We had approached the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in the North West to find out how they are planning to intervene in that municipality seeing how dire the situa...

This morning Bryan talks about how investors tend to panic when they hear bad news either in SA or globally. Is this the time to buy or to sell growth assets? This brings us to the concept of market timing. Guest: Bryan Hirsch – Chairperson of Bryan Hirsch, Colley & Associates

Our next guest is a singer and songwriter who hails from Pretoria and started singing at the age of six. Later, she took part in ciphers with other aspiring hip-hop artists around the city and met dance artist/producer Junior Taurus in the early 2010s who worked with her on singles that got her noticed by industry heavyweights in 2015. Since then, she has collaborated with DJs such as Prince Kaybe...

Guest: Bafana Magagula

A cultural platform has launch a series of financial technology applications that will allow for creatives to distribute their music online to major streaming sites, interact with other creatives through a marketplace and a transactional platform to process payments. An important feature of the innovation is a partnership with an investment management firm to develop an artist investment fund to a...

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a complex neurological condition that affects more than 2.8 million of people worldwide. According to the global burden of disease study, sub-Saharan Africa has around 49 000 cases of MS with 2 800 new cases emerging annually. Multiple Sclerosis has a higher incidence rate in women than men. This week, the health fraternity commemorated World Multiple Sclerosis Day and i...

The final round of public comment on the Hate Speech bill saw over 10 000 submissions opposing the new law before the National Council of Provinces. One of the key themes surrounding this opposition is around the definition of hatred and harm.  According to the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, the Bill was created the offences of hate crimes and hate speech and put in place measures to prevent and...

As part of Child Protection Week, we turn our attention on the impact of mining on children. Especially those based in mining communities. The Benchmark Foundation and NGO Save the Children have today (Thursday) released their report on this issue which outlining the health complications these children are experiencing, from mental deterioration, respiratory and other diseases. To tell us more on...

The Lichtenburg-based Ditsobotla Local Municipality reportedly does not have money to pay their staff. An internal memorandum seen by the SABC News indicates that workers will not receive May salaries. The letter was also shared to us as the Talking Point by one of the listeners. The municipality does not indicate when the salaries will be paid and what the reason for non-payment is. This is one o...

As the country battles to deal with the energy problem, the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute says that the decision-making from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) is moving South Africa in the wrong direction. Guest (confirmed): Francesca de Gasparis - Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute   Guest (confirmed): Princess Mthombeni - Fou...

As it is the last Tuesday of the month, Bryan will answer questions that have been submitted during the course of the month. Guest: Bryan Hirsch – Chairperson of Bryan Hirsch, Colley & Associates

Throughout the month of May, we have been speaking about how trauma has impacted the family structure and how we take those traumas into our communities. We first discussed the impact of trauma on families as it relates to loss, particularly as the Thabo Bester case and the lack of justice that the victim’s family is receiving as proceedings unfold. In recent weeks, we have seen headlines where ci...

Earlier this month, one of our callers (Mickey - JHB) alerted us to a cyclist who had embarked on a fundraising initiative to collect 10 000 pairs of school shoes ahead of the winter season. More than 10 million children that walk to school without shoes in rural communities daily. Our next guests devised a plan to create awareness about the plight of children across the country by setting up a cr...