The National Pulse

Members of Parliament in Iran have approved a bill to impose harsher penalties on women who do not adhere to the country's Islamic dress code. Under this new law, titled "the 'Support for the Culture of Hijab and Chastity' bill, women who continue to defy the country's mandatory hijab law will be jailed for up to 10 years. The draft law also warns businesses of possible serious consequences if the...

As the South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this week. We are joined by Dr Criselda Kananda to talk about the organisation's role in advancing and shaping the women's agenda in the country. GUEST: Dr Criselda Kananda, Acting Deputy Chair of the SAWID Trust  

We look at the rise of witness Intimidation during criminal cases. This is in light of the Senzo Meyiwa trial where the State asked for the Judge to issue a warning to one of the acussed, Sifisokuhle Ntuli after he made a gesture imitating that of pulling a trigger while police constable Sizwe Skhumbuzo Zungu was testifying last week. To share insights on the prevelance of Intimidation and what me...

UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima is attending the 78th UN General Assembly and she will use the platform to address global leaders about the progress being made to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. We understand that Africa is leading in modelling what could be the end of AIDS as 95% of people living with HIV in five African countries are on treatment and know their status.   GU...

Earlier today, Xolani Khumalo handed himself over to the Katlehong North police station in connection to the death of Robert "Kicks" Varrie. The Xolani Khumalo Foundation has issued a statement that reiterated that the production team has followed the law. This is after a recent episode of the MOJA LOVE show, Sizokuthola, where the deceased (allegedly a drug dealer) was interrogated by the host. T...

The South African Police Union has called for police killings to be declared treason. This is after four police officers died in the line of duty in four provinces in recent days. The police union is also reflecting on the rise in police officer deaths in the crime statistics between April and July 2023. To help us understand their stance and what further measures need to be taken, we are joined b...

India has expelled a senior Canadian diplomat after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that New Delhi may have been involved in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh seperatist leader. Following the growing tensions between these two nations, earlier on today, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly announced that the head of Indian intelligence in Canada was being expe...

Guest: Nhlanhla Themba 

According to the South African Weather Services, damaging waves and winds have been forecast between Port Edward and Cape St. Lucia today. As a result, a yellow level one warning has been issued for the KZN coastline. The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has placed its disaster management teams on standby and calls on the public to follow the instructions of officials r...

GUEST: Sudipto Moitra, General Manager for ICT, MTN Enterprise Business Unit @MTN SA

There has been a rise in corpses that have not been claimed or identified in KZN. Over 1500 corpses have been unclaimed and unidentified, some dating back to 2017. Ordinarily, a corpse should not be in a mortuary longer than 30 days and decaying bodies pose a health risk to workers. There is also a shortage in storage facilities and refrigerators are being used to store the influx of decaying bodi...

As part of our #HeritageMonth2023, we unpack the importance of cultural heritage within the protected areas of national parks. National Parks work alongside communities to manage access to heritage sites such as memorials. National Parks are also responsible for assessing and curatoring artefacts that form part of the museums within protected areas. Researchers at these parks are also looking into...

The Democratic Alliance says it plans to lay a complaint with the Human Rights Commission over the South African Social Security Agency’s continuous failure to pay social grant beneficiaries on time. The party is also disturbed by reports that suggest that the department of social development has returned billions of social relief of distress grants to the national treasury over the last financial...

We are coming to you live from the Kruger National Park where SANPARKS will commemorate the 18th South African National Parks Week. The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, has urged the public to make use of the free access to the national parks. The week aims to highlight the importance of our communities accessing the cultural heritage and biodiversity on offer w...

President Cyril Ramaphosa is currently in New York for the annual high-level segment of the United Nations General Assembly that will focus attention on the world’s development agenda while grappling with pressing geo-political issues. For more on the UN Assembly and Ramaphosa’s programme, let’s now cross live to ……   GUEST: Sherwin Bryce-Pease, SABC News Correspondent based in New York

 Co-hos t: Desiree Chauke

Today was the final day of the BRICS Future Skills Challenge that was held at the Nasrec Expo Centre. Central to this year's gathering was the issue of skills development challenges facing BRICS partner countries. To give us more details in terms of the discussions that took place in order to address this issue is...... GUEST: Mapule Ncanywa, Chairperson of the BRICS Business Council Skills Group...

This morning, a second fire broke out at a hijacked building in Marshalltown. This fire takes place less than a month after a fire claimed the lives of 77 people. So far, no fatalities or injuries have been reported as many of the tenants have been evacuated. Earlier this week, Gauteng Panyaza Lesufi announced the terms of reference for the Commission of Inquiry into the Marshalltown fire at the U...

Latest data that was recently published by energy think tank Ember has revealed that exports of solar panels from China grew by 34% in the first quarter of this year, with South Africa importing 3.4 Gigawatts of solar panels from China in the first six months of 2023, an increase of 438% compared to the same period last year. To tell us more about the findings of their latest data and China's push...

Carl Niehaus helps us decipher the old political adage that says “There are no permanent friends or enemies in politics, but only permanent interests”. This as most of you are probably aware that a lot has happened in this country since the days of the ‘ANC Premier League Group’ that played the role of kingmakers within the ruling party. Some of the leaders who were allies at some point no longer...

Eastern Cape Province has emerged as the winner of the third Safer South Africa Foundation’s (SSAF) annual national debating championship that is known as 'Youth for Safer SouthAfrica Debate' that took place in Boksburg recently. This type of competition was introduced three years ago and it is aimed at intensifying crime prevention programmes at schools. To tell us more about their victory, we ar...

Earlier today, the Ministers of Social Development, Ms Lindiwe Zulu and Communications and Digital Technologies, Mr Mondli Gungubele, held a media briefing to provide an overview of the causes of the system outage that led to the inaccessibility of SASSA grants for Postbank account users. This follows the technical glitch that resulted in delayed payments of social grants last week. The briefing a...

As we observe Heritage Month. We tell you more about this somewhat interesting and controversial story of two fossils of ancient human relatives from South Africa who were recently sent into space under very questionable and controversial circumstances. Several archaelogists and scientists have slammed the move, calling it an irresponsible and unethical PR stunt, and a perfect example of neo-colon...

AfriForum says about 95% of farm attacks and murders remain unresolved in South Africa. They are also not happy that convictions have so far been made in only 66 cases.   GUEST: Jacques Broodryk, AfriForum’s spokesperson for Community Safety.

Cabinet will be implementing austerity measures to address the budgetary shortfalls within national and provincial government departments. This comes weeks before Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwane tables his Medium-term budget policy statement. One of the key concerns experts have raised was that the government's attempt to address socio-economic issues through fiscal initiatives has resulted i...