The National Briefing

Guest: Xhanti Payi, senior economist at PwC Strategy The official unemployment rate increased by 0.2 of a percentage point to 32.9% in the first quarter of 2023, from the fourth quarter of last year, Statistics SA reported        

Guest: Dr. Nwabisa Makaluza, Head of Research, Funda Wande Guest: Sipumelele Lucwaba, Secretariat of the Right to Read   Guest: Prof Nic Spaull, Secretariat of the 2030 Reading Panel Mediated Conversation: Yesterday came with confirmation that 81% of our children cannot read for meaning in any language by the time they get to grade four    

Guest: Steven Gruzd, Head of the African Governance and Diplomacy Programme: South African Institute of International Affairs President Ramaphosa announced that Russian President Putin and Ukraine President Zelensky have both approved a plan that will see six African presidents including Ramaphosa traveling to Moscow and Kyiv to try and broker peace in Europe            

Guest: Adv. Sipho Mantula from the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs: UNISA Afrika Update Report: 17 May 2023; 1. Russia-Ukraine -Africa,  South African President Matamela Ramaphosa has announced that six African leaders are planning to travel to Moscow and Kyiv ( African peace mission) ; 2. USA- Nigeria , A senior member of the All Progressive Congress ( APC) Femi Fan...

Guest: Vincent Magwenya, Presidential spokesperson Ramaphosa set to join African mission to broker peace talks between Ukraine, Russia.      

Guest: Professor Mark Swilling, head of the University of Stellenbosch Centre for Sustainable Transitions Government is looking to procure a combined 10,000MW of renewable energy from bid windows seven and eight.    

Guest: Naledi Pandor, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa South African President Matamela Ramaphosa has announced that six Afrikan leaders are planning to travel to Moscow and Kyiv (African peace mission)    

Guest: Zuko Godlimpi, ANC national executive committee or his job as an advisor to Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane denies academic fraud, claims allegations have tainted his reputation.                      

Guest: Dr Gary Koekemoer, Wildlife and Environment Society of SA (Wessa) Algoa Bay chair As we are currently on stage four load shedding and moving to stage six later - there are more indications that government is preparing to sign some kind of contract with the company Karpoewrships.      

Guest: Nthabiseng Dubazana, Legal analyst and Director and Attorney at Dubazana A witness in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial says she doesn’t want her testimony to be broadcast        

Guest: Na'eem Jeenah - senior researcher at the Mapungubwe Institute of Strategic Reflection Turkiye will now go to a run-off presidential election in two weeks’ time - after the incumbent president Recep Erdogoan beat his main challenger - but didn’t get 50% of the vote.        

Guest: Sizwe Tsotetsi, Standerton Community leader There’s been protests in Standerton in the Lekwa municipality in Mpumalanga - with people calling for the Mayor Louis Thabethe to step down.  

Guest: Mari Harris, Senior Client Officer Ipsos An Ipsos survey has now shown that unemployment is the top worry for South Africans      

Guest: Lawrence Troon, MMC Safety & Security for Nelson Mandela Bay There are now mop-up operations in Nelson Mandela Bay following heavy rains          

Guest:  Adv. Sipho Mantula from the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs: UNISA   Afrika Update Report: 16 May 2023; 1. Sudan -Khartoum, Air strikes and explosions rocked Sudan yesterday as no sign of peace despite Egypt, South Sudan, IGAD and Jeddah declaration's efforts for mediation process ; 2. Colombia - Kenya, South Africa and Ethiopia, The vice-president of Colombi...

Guest: Alan Christoffels, Director South African National Bioinformatics Institute at the University of the Western Cape African scientists are working to pool data that decodes diseases – a giant step.    

  Guest: Wilmien Wicomb, Attorney at Legal Resources Centre The Legal Resources Centre, on behalf of a member of seven traditional communities in Limpopo, is challenging the imposition of taxes, levies, and rates by traditional councils in the province.    

Guest: Kenny Kunene – MMC: Transport – City of Joburg The Acting Mayor of Joburg Kenny Kunene led what he says are interventions to look at hijacked buildings in the centre of Joburg      

Guest: Dr Sharon Nyatsanza, National Council Against Smoking deputy director Guest: Prof Corne Van Walbeek, Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town Mediated Conversation: Next month a new tax of two rand nine a millilitre will be imposed on nicotine and non-nicotine vape juice.          

Guest: Thami Ngubane, Chair for SALGA working group: Electricity The South African Local Government Association says that electricity is out for more than 10 hours a day in many rural municipalities      

Guest: Pelonomi Moiloa, CEO of Lelapa AI Guest: Prof Bruce Watson, Chair of Computational Thinking, Capitec Bank Chair in AI for Cybersecurity in the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking; Professor of Information Science: Stellenbosch University Guest: Andile Stofile, Government and Corporate Affairs Lead at Microsoft South Africa

Guest: Obed Bapela, ANC's deputy chair of the international relations subcommittee The ANC and SACP have accused US ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety of reckless behaviour, saying his public utterances were not warranted and he breached diplomatic protocol.    

Guest: Conny Nkalitshana, Executive Mayor of Emalahleni Local Municipality In Emalahleni in Mpumalanga, the council say that it believes electricity will now be restored soon to residents in KwaGuqa extension - after huge protests there because the power was always off.        

Guest: Adv. Sipho Mantula from the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs: UNISA   Afrika Update Report: 15 May 2023; 1. Sudan - Khartoum, As fighting in Sudan entered a fifth week , air strikes, Saudi Arabia talks in between yet Sudanese continue to flee the ongoing fighting between the army and paramilitary Rapid support forces; 2. Somalia - Hiran, Humantarian alert in So...

Guest: Prof. Tinyiko Maluleke, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the Tshwane University of Technology. SA Reserve Bank, please remove the ludicrous, absurd, fictional and offensive toy word ‘bangikulu’ from our banknotes now.