The National Pulse

The Public Service Commission held a media briefing to share their quarterly Bulletin for the period of 1 July to 30 September 2023. Inside that Bulletin, the PSC revealed that the government has amassed an outstanding bill of R4,7 billion to their suppliers and 36577 invoices have been paid after 30 days from the date of issue. The provinces that are the biggest offenders are the Eastern Cape fol...

As COP28 enters its final days, one of the key discussions in these deliberations is the financial viability of climate solutions given the barriers facing the global South. Our next guest argues that technology transfer will play a key role in protecting livelihoods, building new innovative renewable solutions and safeguarding natural resources. To tell us more, we are joined by... Guest: Duncan...

Junior Achievement (JA) Africa in partnership with Google's charitable arm and Z Zurich Foundation, have launched JA Career Connect, which is a new cloud-based platform designed to connect young African talent with employment opportunities across the globe. Guest: Bernadette Bule - Marketing & Communications Manager - JA South Africa  

President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to amend laws surrounding public service (Public Service Amendment Bill) in a bid to fight corruption. The government has also set up an inter-departmental task team that will develop a register to track all public officials across the three spheres of governance who have been fired or dismissed as a result of misconduct. So far, 12,000 records have been added to t...

Earlier on today, the Electoral Commission hosted a seminar that looked at the findings of a survey conducted among voters to gauge their perceptions and intentions ahead of the 2024 general elections. Among other things, their research found that many citizens do not have enough information on how to vote and they are also unaware of the services provided by the Electoral Commission. Surely this...

Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza has raised concerns over Botswana’s extension on import restrictions. Didiza says she will seek an urgent meeting with her Botswana’s counterpart in order to raise her concerns as she is worried about the negative impact this will have on bilateral trade between the two countries. Recently, Botswana announced that it will exte...

The military governments of Mali and Niger have announced plans to end their tax agreements with France within the next three months. Mali's tax agreement with France has been in place since 1972, while Niger's deal has existed since 1965. We understand that the tax deals were created to prevent Malian and Nigerien nationals who live in France from paying tax in two countries. French nationals als...

City of Tshwane has warned that Soshanguve residents will experience a power supply interruption for 11 hours, starting from today until Friday due to the construction of the Apollo-Dinaledi 400 kV line. GUEST: Themba Fosi, MMC for Utilities and Regional operations and coordination at the City of Tshwane  

The National Stokvel Society of South Africa has warned members of stokvels to keep their operations private, especially as the festive season gets underway. The association says stokvels must be vigilant when they share their savings as scammers may target members in light of December being peak withdrawal season for group savings schemes. To share their tips for how stokvel groups can safely dis...

Durban Port has become a hub for international drug networks smuggling drugs into the country as the police yesterday seized R151 million worth of cocaine that arrived at the Durban Harbour from Brazil. This is the third massive drug bust in two months at this harbour.  No arrests have been made and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) has taken over the investigation. Guest: Br...

The Virtual Santa Shoeboxes initiative has brought the world to tears of joy. After a young boy was captured on video celebrating after he received a special gift whilst at school in the Western Cape. Each year the Santa Shoebox Project collects and distributes personalised gifts of essential items and treats for underprivileged children throughout South Africa and Namibia. Joining us to tell us m...

As we commemorate 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), our next guest argues that R1,6 billion budget allocation is not reaching organizations protecting women and children. This is despite commitments made at Presidential Summits on GBV (2018 & 2022) and Femicide and the rollout of the national Emergency Response Action Plan (ERAP). The budget is also not stemming the tide...

The South African economy recorded a minor contraction in the third quarter of this year as output fell in the agriculture, mining and construction industries, Stats SA’s data revealed earlier on today. According to Joe de Beer, DDG responsible for Economic Statistics at Statistics South Africa, almost all sectors of the economy were neither growing nor declining. But what informs this trend, De B...

MEC of Basic Education in Free State speaks out on murder of 16-year-old learner in Bloemfontein. The body of young Machaka Radebe was found in a field near Phase 9, Bloemspruit in the early hours of Monday morning. The Department of Basic Education for young learners to be vigilant and announced that psycho-social services will be made available for learners and staff attending Brebnar Secondary...

The Democratic Alliance has announced that it will submit a PAIA application to obtain every national minister's full performance assessment. The party made this announcement earlier on today when they were briefing the media about their assessment of the country’s 6th Parliament.    GUEST: Siviwe Gwarube, Parliament’s Chief Whip of the official opposition

After acknowledging that the net migration is too high. Rishi Sunak’s government has announced new VISA rules that will make it difficult for foreigners to move to the UK. However, the new rules have faced backlash from sectors such as healthcare, which is already experiencing staff shortages. According to the UK government, the tightening of immigration rules aims to reduce net migration. For mor...

In the past hour, the African National Congress held a press briefing on the status of Ezulweni Investments after the sheriff of the High Court failed to attach property from Luthuli House to remedy the R102 million bill the political party amassed for election banners for the 2019 National Elections. According to reports, the governing party blocked access for the Sheriff of the Gauteng High Cour...

As the Police continue investigations into the death of seven people in a vigilantism attack in Diepsloot, members of the community have come out and criticized the government for their lack of visibility within the community given the rise of rampant crime. During the announcement of the latest Crime Stats for Quarter 3 of 2023, the Minister of Police highlighted the rise of vigilantism in violen...

The Constitutional Court has dismissed the Independent Candidates Association's application to declare the Electoral Amendment Act unconstitutional. The apex court found that the organization failed to make a case for constitutional invalidity. The matter was brought before the court after the association lamented the fairness of the Act. To hear reaction to the court ruling from the main applican...

Dr Bridgette Gasa-Toboti, Portfolio Director for the TNPA KZN Logistics Hub Programme.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa has welcomed the landmark judgement declaring loadshedding a breach in basic human rights and ordering the Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to restore electricity supply to critical public goods such as hospitals, schools, police stations and others. The union also called for the government to facilitate a proper consultation process...

Former chairperson of the First Rand Group, Roger Jardine has made himself available for political office with the possible links to the Democratic Alliance. A meeting between Jardine and the political party was held to discuss the possibility of becoming the face of the Multi-Party Charter. To discuss the implications of this marriage and how other political stakeholders may respond to this, we a...

Money pledges grabbed the spotlight at COP28 in Dubai today as delegates turned their focus to the yawning gap in the need for climate finance. UAE, the host of this year's conference, pledged $270 billion in green finance by 2030 through its banks.  Guest: Sophie Mokweona - SABC News International Editor

Minister of Home Affairs, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi announced that the Department of Home Affairs has granted exemption permits for 178 000 Zimbabwean nationals and 54 653 Lesotho nationals for another 2 years. This is in light of upcoming deadlines for the exemption permits and the court decision to dismiss the Ministry's appeal to challenge the June 2023 ruling surrounding the termination of the ZEP...

This week, the third global Identity Fraud Report was released. The research unpacks the leading causes of identity fraud across 28 industries and collates data from 2 million cases from the past 12 months. Cases of Identity Fraud has multiplied 10-fold in the past year. The top five types of identity fraud include AI-powered fraud, money mulling networks, fake IDs, account takeovers and forced ve...