The National Pulse

After her court appearance today – Dr Nandipha Magudumana will face the following charges aiding and abetting escape of a convicted prisoner from lawful custody, murder of a number of bodies that were found in her possession, violation of bodies, and fraud GUEST: Phaladi Shuping, Free State NPA spokesperson

EFF MP and member of the portfolio committee on justice and correctional services, Yoliswa Yako has lambasted G4S’ inconsistency of their timelines on when they found out about Thabo Bester’s escape and when they acted on it. She says G4S merely reacted because the escape had been exposed by the media, otherwise, in the interest of protecting their business, they would not have reported the escape...

YES CEO Ravi Naidoo speaks to us about the sterling work that his organisation has been doing in tackling youth unemployment in South Africa. Within just four years, the Youth Employment Service (YES), has managed to place 100,000 young South Africans into the private sector, something that needs to be applauded.     GUEST: Ravi Naidoo, CEO of the Youth Employment Service (YES)

We are now on load-shedding stage 6. Eskom says this is due to a shortage of generation capacity. We will go back to stage 5 at 4pm tomorrow. Just last week, Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientso Ramokgopa said our crisis was getting better. We’re now joined by energy analyst, Roger Lilley.

Security company, G4S has failed to answer some of the most important questions with regards to the escape of serial rapist and murderer, Thabo Bester from a prison they manage. The company is in parliament to account before the portfolio committee on justice and correctional services. The company has admitted it failed to do its job, however, it says an investigation is underway and 7 employees s...

Nersa is considering increasing municipal electricity tariffs by 15.1% in three months’ time. The organisation will soon hold a public hearing about the consultation paper on 24 April, before the 28 April deadline for comments. To explain what this means, we are joined by…..   GUEST: Kevin Allan, Managing Director @Municipal IQ

The Mpumalanga Division of the High Court in Mbombela has provisionally withdrawn the case of murder against four men accused of murder of Hillary Gardee. The matter was provisionally withdrawn after the State Prosecutor told the court that a witness couldn't be found. For more on this, we are now joined by Mthobisi Mkalipi, SABC News reporter based in Mpumalanga……  

Sudan has failed to meet deadline to form civilian government, something that is deeply regrettable as many people thought the Sudanese people will finally be able to restore the country’s democratic transition. According to several reports, the deadline lapsed after the military and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Force failed to sign a final transition deal over disagreements on the inte...

The Department of Water and Sanitation has opened up the application process for independent power producers who want to use water to produce renewable energy. The department met with IPPs to announce its plans to produce renewable energy in partnership with the private sector using dams and rivers. What will three phase process of vetting IPPs entail? We’re now joined by Advocate Sipho Skosana, C...

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural development is working with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to amend the Animal Matters Amendment Act of 1993 in a bid to protect citizens from power dogs like pit bulls and hold their owners accountable for harm caused by their dogs. This follows a series of attacks by pit bulls against other animals and people. The dep...

In conversation with Dikeledi Skonyela on how she managed to transform her life as she tells us more about her interesting life journey as a former artisanal miner. By her own admission, it took drastic events to turn her life around for the better.   GUEST: Dikeledi Skonyela, Professional diamond polisher & diamond evaluator

After receiving several complaints from some of our listeners about the lack of refuse collection in Ekurhuleni. We have decided to invite the City of Ekurhuleni just to find out if they are aware of this problem and also if they are doing anything to address and resolve this issue.   GUEST: Zweli Dlamini, Spokesperson of Ekurhuleni Municipality  

Pakistan has criticised India’s decision to host the upcoming G20 meeting in the disputed territory of Kashmir. Pakistan’s foreign affairs ministry says it is a well-known fact that Kashmir, which is being claimed by both countries - is an internationally recognised dispute that has remained on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council for over seven decades. To remind us as to what inform...

According to the latest Nedbank Insights Report, about 64% of township small businesses have been negatively affected by the ongoing loadshedding as most of them have been forced to cut jobs. Nedbank says these results are troubling and require a response from both the private and public sectors. For more on this, we are joined by….. GUEST: Lizzy Mogale: Managing Executive for Insights & Advis...

The South African Communist Party says majority of the values Chris Hani died for are yet to be achieved. The party says those in leadership need to use their political power to influence policy to ensure people not only have land, but economic freedom too. It commemorated the 30th anniversary of Chris Hani's murder in Ekurhuleni today. Guest: Madala Masuku, first Deputy General Secretary of the S...

Two people have been arrested in connection with convicted rapist and murderer, Thabo Bester's prison escape. One of the suspects is a 39 year old former G4S employee and another one is a 65 year old man from Port Edward. They have both been charged with aiding and abetting a convicted prisoner to escape from lawful custody. Thabo Bester, Dr Nandipha Magudumana and a third suspect were arrested in...

We celebrate the winner of this year’s national Furniture Design Competition, Tshepiso Motau, a third-year Industrial Design student at UJ. According to the ministry of trade, industry and competition, Motau designed an eye-catching and colourful room divider with the Ndebele patterns inspired by the internationally acclaimed artist, Dr Esther Mahlangu. GUEST: Tshepiso Motau, Winner of the 2023 Fu...

The video of the Dalai Lama kissing and asking a boy to suck his tongue has caused outrage across the world, sparking another discussion on the safety of children, especially in the hands of religious figures. The incident happened at a temple in India in February after the young boy asked to hug him. The Dalai Lama is the holiest figure in Tibetan Buddhism. He has since apologised in a statement...

Large parts of Tshwane are still without power, following the collapse of seven electricity pylons on the N4 highway.  Currently, the City of Tshwane is unable to say when power would be restored due to bad weather conditions. For more on this, we are joined by… GUEST: Selby Bokaba, City of Tshwane’s spokesperson

The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) says it is worried about the alarming increase in the number of violent incidents in schools since the beginning of the year. According to the union, KZN is the most affected with these incidents. For more on this, we are joined by….. GUEST: Nkosana Dolopi, Deputy General Secretary of SADTU

Following an alleged leak of U.S intelligence documents, the country’s department of justice has opened an investigation into the incident. The documents, which are widely shared on social media platforms such as Twitter, are part of routine updates that the US military's joint staff would produce daily but not distribute publicly. To explain how the apparent leak of these highly classified docume...

Clearwater Mall has issued a statement on its social media pages stating that no unsupervised minors would be granted access to the mall this weekend.  The mall has also heightened security ahead of the Easter Weekend. This is in light of two separate incidents of disruption at Mall of Africa and Canal Walk last month. Luh Twizzy was inspired by Tik Tok challenge where teenagers storm malls, creat...

Statistics South Africa says electricity production fell by 9.7% in February compared with the same month last year. In January, it had fallen by 8%. South Africa has been dealing with months of rolling blackouts due as it navigates its way around the energy crisis. President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster over the energy crisis, however, it came to an end yesterday. Stats S...

What conditions do countries have to fulfill in order for their extradition applications to succeed? South Africa’s extradition request for the Gupta brothers was dismissed. The two face money laundering and fraud charges. South Africa has requested that they be extradited back into the country after they fled to the UAE to avoid arrest. The request was rejected in February, however, South African...