The Daily Discourse

Tributes continue to pour in for Dr Frene Ginwala who was the country's very first National Assembly Speaker in the democratic Parliament. She passed away last week Thursday at the age of 90. Ginwala was an anti-apartheid activist, lawyer, academic and political leader among others. She was Speaker from 1994 until 2004. In 2005, she was honoured with the order of Luthuli in Silver. Let’s take you...

Last week Thursday we spoke to Professor Patrick Bond from UJ and Prof Anthoni and Nieukerk about South Africa assuming the presidency of multilateral group, BRICS. They then touched on how South Africa intends to balance their foreign policy when it comes to this issue. So this morning we hear from the Department of International Relations to also educate us on the country’s foreign policy. Guest...

Focus: Our next guest is the daughter of a legendary jazz legend and pioneer, Thandi Klaasen. She has blazed a trail of her own in the jazz industry, having performed in festivals across North America and the Carribean. She has won a JUNO Award and nominated for an Aboriginal Peoples' Choice Music Awards. She returns to launch her new album, Ukubonga, with long-time collaborator: Mongering Ntaka....

Next week, many excited young pwople will get their results and start planning their first big step in their futures. While some will go to university, others may have not qualified and are look for alternative post-education studies to shape what they do for work and how they earn a livelihood. These days, people still doubt the power of vocational training and how it can be a driver of the econo...

Electricity will increase by 18.65 % for the year 2023 and 12.74% the following year. That will be over 30% increase in a period of two years. Eskom had asked for a 32% increase in 2023 and just over 9% the following year. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa announced its decision, saying it took into consideration public comments from different interested parties in the energy sector. T...

The death of former apartheid Law and Order Minister, Adriaan Vlok marks an end of a brutal era in the country’s history. Vlok was Minister from 1986 till 1991, and it was under his watch that many political activists were brutalised, tortured and killed. Yes he may have washed the feet of one of his victims in a sign of repentance, but what about justice for the victims? As a nation, how are we e...

This year, President Cyril Ramaphosa and the South African government will assume the presidency of the multilateral group: BRICS. Pretoria will host the BRICS Summit in August 2023. This is taking place at a time where the group is undergoing several changes. Brazil has just inaugurated President Lula da Silva on New Year’s Day. As of December 2022, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi assume...

Focus: If you were following the news over the festive season, you would've seen reports around Christmas and New Year babies. As much as it was exciting to count babies, the concern was that the mothers are very young. This takes back to the scary problem of teenage pregnancy in the country. Speculation has been that the young girls are impregnated by older men, but then the health MECs discovere...

With the new year underway, many people look at this first quarter as a time to create new health goals. Some people may spend their time to returning to the gym and becoming more physically active. Other people may spend their time changing their diets and count calories. However, not a lot of people do not spend this month doing health check-up to reduce their cholesterol, blood pressure or risk...

Focus: This morning Bryan is dealing with how to be organised in the event of your death. He now joins us in studio to educate us on the subject... Guest(Studio): Bryan Hirsch - Chairperson of Bryan Hirsch, Colley & Associates (Pty) Limited

Yesterday (Monday) President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke to a couple of senior journalist after his January 8th statement. The president touched on various issues and also answering questions posed to him by these journalists. And this morning we thought to speak to them to get their perspective. Let’s welcome now…   Guest: JJ Tabane – Media personality and TV host Guest: Hajra Omarjee – Political journ...

Tomorrow (Wednesday) schools will be opening. The Department of Basic Education is adamant that all systems are in place. So far it was some parents in Gauteng who were complaining about the ineffectiveness of the online system. Other parents are worried about late admissions and whether they will be allowed. So we thought to invite the department to get a sense of the state of readiness as the sc...

 Over the weekend, a first case of the new COVID-19 sub-variant (Kraken) has been recorded in South Africa. The discovery was made in the Western Cape on 27 December and the Department of Health is still gathering information on the new variant's rate of transmissibility. To tell us more about the variant, we are joined by… Guest: Prof. Tulio de Oliveira - Professor of Bioinformatics at the Univer...

This morning, we will zoom into the issue of unity in the ANC. Every conference ends with a call for unity. But we saw what happened when KZN entered the conference with Zuma last year where they disrupted President Ramaphosa as he was delivering his address. Is Zuma still the elephant in the room for the ANC? Zuma and Ramaphosa are taking each other to court currently. Carl Nehaus on the other ha...

Our next guest is a vocalist, trumpeteer and musical director. He is well-known for his versatility in Jazz, Western Classical and African indigenous music. He has gone onto perform with numerous musicians of note: Jimmy Dludlu, The Abdullah Ibrahim Big Band, Robbie Jansen, Max Vidima and Moreira Chonguica. He has produced, played and co-written on Nomfundo Xaluva’s multi award-winning albums KUSI...

Some KwaZulu Natal municipalities have set aside over five-point-eight million rand to provide services, such as water and mobile toilets, for thousands of Nazareth Baptist Church members, who are undertaking a pilgrimage in the Ndwedwe area mountains this weekend. The eThekwini, Ndwedwe and the Ilembe districts will be providing services to all factions of the Shembe Church. So we thought to use...

As the first week of the year comes to an end, we reflect on the return of die Tweede Nuwe Jaar. As thousands celebrate the colourful parades down the streets of Cape Town for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been several changes to the route of the showpiece that does not uphold Bo-Kaap traditions. Some of these changes include the sponsorship of the event by a betting compa...

 In South Africa, more than 10 million tons of edible surplus food is either lost or wasted throughout the supply chain annually. This is while nearly 30 million people experience moderate to severe food insecurity each month. South Africa does not have a policy to govern food donations. Our next guest is proposing that legislating a food donations policy would allow South Africa to not only recov...

In a feel-good story, we turn our attention to the volunteer lifeguards of Life Saving South Africa who spend their time protecting the public from drowning at our beaches. During the 2021/2022 season, the teams across South Africa took part in 1462 rescues and 3885 first-aid cases. They have helped train 4160 lifeguards. Guest: Dhaya Sewduth - President of Lifesaving South Africa

While we have made it to a new year, we are still burdened with a declining public trust in our leadership and institutions. Our next guest has written an opinion piece that unpacks not only the value of public trust in society but reminds us of the power we hold as citizens when we recognize its currency. She challenges the reader to reconsider investing in our leaders and asks the reader to set...

Our next guest says that every time a heart starts beating spontaneously under his fingers after an operation, it is as if in that moment he can observe the absolute miracle of Creation. He wishes to share this miracle to children who need life-saving surgeries by raising funds through a new musical project: Sacred Heart. Through his work at Young Hearts Africa, he has collaborated with the likes...

We have heard about how we need to build our township economies to create opportunities for development. We understand some of the socio-economic challenges our communities face on the periphery of urban contexts. But what if we could use technology to respond to health, education, unemployment and other structural challenges? Our next guest joins us to unpack what it means to see an innovation la...

As we start the year, we thought to use the opportunity to talk about elections to watch out for on the African countries. Three countries that commentators are worried about are Zimbabwe, Nigeria and the DRC. In west Africa, the worry has been mostly on the return of coups, something that analyst believe could be orchestrated by western powers. To help us navigate this issue,   Guest: Adv Sipho M...

One of the lessons from 2022 was that social contracts were deteriorating at a rapid rate and we could attest to this when it came to the impact it had to our daily lives. Last year, the decline in service delivery came under the spotlight in many configurations: in the form of shadow governance (privately-funded initiatives); in disconnection of basic services due to municipal debts or illegal co...

Focus: Our next guest has been working in the gospel industry for the past 15 years and has reached 2.4 million listeners. He has worked alongside Winnie Mashaba, Omega Khunou, and the late Neyi Zimu and Sfiso Ncwane. His work has won the Best Album at the Ingoma Awards for his 2016 album: Time of God Manifest. He has also been nominated for the South African Music Awards and the Crown Gospel Musi...