The National Pulse

A woman from Klerksdorp is currently on a tractor trip to Cape Town in a bid to raise funds for her 16 year old daughter. Corné Els has been on the road since last week, and hopes to reach Cape Town by the 1st of July. Her daughter has qualified has qualified to go and represent South Africa at the tug-of-war championships in Switzerland in August. How far is she? . Corné Els joins us on the line...

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse has laid a criminal complaint for fraud and corruption against NSFAS CEO, Andile Nongogo and his former colleagues. OUTA says the charge is related to the over-inflation of a of a tender awarded in 2016. Nongogo previously worked as the CEO  of the Services Sector Education and Training Authority. OUTA says the SETA granted a tender for branding material that was...

The 29 year old who was left stranded in Cambodia after being lured into a job scam is back in the country. When we spoke to him, he was still preparing to come back after his community’s intervention. Xolani Fongo was stuck in Asia since November 2022. His community in Free State raised funds to bring him back after he shared his story. He couldn’t share some details when we last spoke to him, ci...

Two months ago, the department of justice and constitutional development discovered an illegal breach on the Guardian’s Fund (GFS), and found that over R17 million had been lost from the fund. After investigating the matter, the preliminary investigation found that the GFS was breached internally by certain officials working within the department. These officials have since been placed on precauti...

While altercations are continuing between protestors and the police. We understand that the JMPD officers are on the scene and they are doing their utmost best to contain the situation.  Guest: SABC News reporter Prabashni Moodley GUEST: Xolani Fihla, Spokesperson of the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD)

Following a dramatic Russian military mutiny this past weekend, today we ask - Is Putin’s grip on power under threat? On Saturday, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private militia Wagner Group seized control of the strategic city of Rostov and advanced an armed convoy to within 200 kilometers of Moscow. However, after the deal was struck, Prigozhin ordered his troops to retreat to avoid shedding Russian blood....

Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts say the state of the Road Accident Fund is shocking. The committee says there needs to be an urgent intervention on the governance of the entity and people need to be held accountable. Scopa Chairperson, Mkhuleko Hlengwa is calling for the immediate removal of the board whose term has expired. We’re now joined by SABC News reporter, Katlego Legodi...

Linda Siboto tells us more about the work of Cheeba Cannabis Academy. The academy is regarded as Africa’s first cannabis education company and it was established in 2019. Currently, Siboto and his fellow partners are training young people on how to grow weed as they try to dispel misconceptions about this plant that most people use as a medicinal and recreational drug. GUEST: Linda Siboto, co-foun...

Higher Education Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande met with the University of Fort Hare today to discuss a variety of issues, including the safety of the vice chancellor and dysfunctions within the council. The university has been dealing with assassination attempts at the Vice Chancellor Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, alleged illegal cyber surveilling of staff members and investigations around academic fr...

After facing numerous challenges since 2015. The ANC in the Western Cape is finally hosting its provincial conference (currently underway at the Cape Town International Convention Centre). The race to lead the province will see the party’s current leader in the provincial legislature, Cameron Dugmore going against Richard Dyantyi who is currently the chairperson of Parliament’s Section 194 Inquiry...

Tomorrow, Sierra Leoneans will vote to choose their next president. The current President Julius Maada Bio is seeking a second and final term amid frustrations over economic hardships. Although several candidates are vying for the top job, many in the country believe that Samura Kamara, the head of the All People's Congress Party, which is Sierra Leon's main opposition, is likely to pose a serious...

The Department of Mineral resources has confirmed that a group of 31 suspected illegal miners who are believed to be Basotho nationals died in a mine ventilation shaft last month. Following this tragic incident, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says his department views the whole issue of illegal mining as economic sabotage and has urged the government of Lesotho to work with t...

The French robot, called Victor six-thousand, is being used to assist in the search of the North Atlantic Ocean's Midnight Zone after the Titan Submersible went missing close to the Titanic wreck. A multinational search team is working to locate the vessel, which has five people on board. It lost communication on Sunday as it made a descent to the wreck of the Titanic. The crew are thought to have...

Last week, the National Assembly passed the National Health Insurance Bill, however not everyone was pleased about it. The SA Institute of Race Relations for instance is of the view that the implementation of the NHI will result in the exodus of many health professionals because they believe the NHI will destabilise healthcare rather than improve it. On the other hand though, organisations like th...

Stem cell transplant survivor Robin Lewis and his wife Jolandie will be embarking on the first ever inter-continental drive to raise awareness for stem cell donation in August. The couple will travel through Africa, Europe and Asia over the next 10 years visiting 64 countries in the hope of signing up thousands of donors en-route, to help find matches for patients in need of bone marrow stem cell...

Chief Justice Raymond Zondo says nothing has changed since the release of the state capture inquiry report. He was speaking earlier at the CSIR. He says parliament failed to stop state capture when they should have and he fears they wouldn’t stop it if another group of people attempted it in the future. We’re now joined by governance expert, Sandile Swana, but before we speak to him, let’s listen...

The Gauteng basic education department has extended the deadline for online applications for grades one and eight to the 21st of July. The department says some parents preferred to submit supporting documents to the school instead of the online platform. The initial deadline was the 14th of July. Over 400 000 applications have been recorded since the application period opened on the 15th of June....

Joburg metro police will soon introduce body cameras for its officers, as they believe this will aid them in the fight against crime. They have also revealed that the process of procuring body-worn cameras is already underway. But will this latest move also root out cold drink bribes? We find out from….. GUEST: Xolani Fihla, JMPD Spokesperson

ANC national spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri explains why the ruling party has decided to challenge the High Court ruling regarding its deployment policy. Yesterday, the party was supposed to hand over its deployment committee records to the Democratic Alliance but chose to approach the Supreme Court of Appeal instead.   GUEST: Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, ANC National spokesperson

We look at the Critical Raw Materials Act proposed by the European Union and hear from the Bench Marks Foundation as to why they think Africans and other countries with rich mineral deposits should pay more attention to it. The foundation is calling on global leaders to be open and frank in terms of what this Act entails and its objectives thereof. According to the European Union, the Critical Raw...

The annual Consumer Price Index slowed down for May slowed down to 6.3% from 6.8% in April. Stats SA says this is the lowest South Africa’s inflation rate since April 2022, caused by the cooling down of food prices and the slowing down of fuel prices. Are we likely to see a cut in interest rates? We’re now joined by Professor Bonke Dumisa, independent economic analyst.

Crews searching for the Titan Submersible that went missing with five tourists who wanted to see the Titanic shipwreck, say they heard banging sounds during their search. Their submarine has less than 24 hours’ worth of oxygen left. The group went on the expedition to see the Titanic shipwreck that is 4 kilomitres under the sea on Sunday, however, their ship lost contact about an hour and 45 minut...

We hear from Elijah Mhlanga on why the department of basic education has decided to endorse an educational support programme called AVBOB STEP 12. We understand that this noble programme was developed to assist Grade 12 learners to excel in both their home language and first additional language, since these are compulsory subjects and should be passed with a minimum of 40%.   GUEST: Elijah Mhlanga...

The ANC will not be handing minutes of its deployment committee meetings to the DA today. The party is heading to the Supreme Court of Appeals after the Johannesburg High Court dismissed its bid for an appeal last week. The DA’s wants meeting minutes, WhatsApp conversations, and emails from the ANC’s deployment committee to shed some light on cadre deployment in the party. We’re now joined by Dr L...

It appears that the Winterveld community is being harassed by the mosquitos. The City of Tshwane’s Health MMC Rina Marx, has revealed that her department has been receiving multiple complaints about a mosquito infestation in the area.   GUEST: Rina Marx, City of Tshwane MMC for Health