The National Pulse

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni caused a twitter storm today after he tweeted, “ I publicly, and in my personal capacity, DISAGREE, with the phasing out of Afrikaans as one of the mediums of teaching at the University of Pretoria. As a country, you are shooting yourselves down. You will regret it in 30 years’ time.”. Guest: Arthur Goldstuck - CEO – World Wide Worx

South Africa’s agricultural industry body AgriSA says it will approach banks, agribusiness and government to raise 3 billion rand to help farmers hit by severe drought. Farmers have faced dry conditions over most of the nation for the last year, even as they are still recovering from a disastrous El Nino-induced drought in 2015. A survey of producers showed that 31,000 jobs and 7 billion rand in p...

Zimbabwe’s Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry has declared today as “Dhuku” Day in honour of music legend Dr Oliver Mtukudzi. Mtukudzi who died on Wednesday afternoon at the Avenues Clinic in Harare also worked with ONE and its sister organisation RED to bring awareness on Africa’s fight to end the reign of one of Africa’s enemies, HIV/AIDS. ONE is a campaigning and advoca...

The South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights says it would approach the courts soon to address the issue of some prisoners who are not going to be able to register to vote. This is due to them not being able to register as they serve their sentences outside of the provinces. guest: Golden Miles Bhudu, President of the South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights

In another victory for the civil society coalition defending a Mpumalanga strategic water source area, the North Gauteng High Court today refused mining company Atha Africa leave to appeal the court’s decision to set aside permissions for a new coal mine inside a declared protected environment. Guest: Catherine Horsfield - Centre for Environmental Rights Attorney and Head of the Centre’s Mining Pr...

Frans Cronje - the CEO of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) wrote yesterday that the South African government is quite close to the point where it could begin seizing property without compensation. He says there are twin processes at play, and their implications extend beyond farms and agriculture to threatened seizures of pension funds and even the economy itself. Guest: Michael Morris - Head...

The World Economic Forum is currently taking place in Davos, Switzerland. President Ramaphosa is there leading a South African delegation that includes Minister of Health, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi. Guest: Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi - Minister of Health – joins me on the line from Davos

Last week we spoke to the South African Medical Association, SAMA, on some of the struggles that newly qualified doctors are facing including placements in different hospitals. Amy Green – a journalist from Health-E News did this interesting investigation on whether some of these newly qualified doctors are picky when it comes to placements. Guest: Amy Green - Senior writer at Health-E News

The ANC has called upon the millions of Zimbabweans who had made South Africa their home to get involved in turning around their country. During a media briefing at the party's yesterday, the ANC said it had hoped sanctions against Zimbabwe by the United States and the United Kingdom would have been lifted following that country’s elections in 2018, however that did not happen. And, At the World E...

President of the African Freedom Revolution- a new South African political party- Bishop Bheki Ngcobo says they are hoping to get up to three million votes in the upcoming elections. The party plans on contesting elections nationally and in all nine provinces. Ngcobo is a well-known supporter of former President, Jacob Zuma guest: SABC reporter in KZN Nonkululeko Hlophe

The EFF has called on the Commission of inquiry into State Capture, led by Justice Raymond Zondo to protect former Bosasa COO, Angelo Agrizzi following his damning testimony at the Commission. Party leader Julius Malema says the ANC has members who are not immune to causing disruptions and break the law. He told a media conference in Johannesburg today, that they'll see to it that the Commission d...

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on the education sector to ensure children excel in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics - otherwise known as STEAM. He said this would ensure that learners, from an early age, meet the international standards prescribed as minimum benchmarks for reading comprehension, mathematics and science. He was speaking at the Education Lekgotla in Boksb...

Leader of the Good party Patricia De Lille introduced the interim leadership committee of her party this past weekend and she said the party will speak about racism everyday and endeavour to bring an end to "colour-coding" people. Commenting on corruption, she said: "All criminals should be put in jail, and not in Parliament. If we do that now, half of Parliament will be gone." guest: Patricia De...

Yesterday frustrated prospective students at the University of Limpopo have accused the university of wasting their time. Some of the students have accused the university of placing them on waiting lists for long periods and later declining their applications. Others allege that they were told to come back at a later stage as registration had not begun, only to be informed that there is no longer...

This after the council failed to elect a new mayor during the council sitting today due to differences between councillors. The municipality has been without a mayor for about a month after the removal of the former mayor over the VBS scandal. ANC councillor, Victor Mahlake, has tabled a proposal for the council to elect the chairperson of the council instead of the mayor. Michael Makungo – SABC j...

This comes after senior party officials, including ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and secretary-general Ace Magashule expressed different views on the role of the bank. The ANC was briefing the media in Johannesburg following the conclusion of the party's National Executive Committee meeting and its first Lekgotla for the year which ended in Irene outside Pretoria earlier today. Both gatherings wer...

The world’s 26 richest people own the same wealth as the poorest half of humanity, a new report by Oxfam said today, urging governments to hike taxes on the wealthy to fight soaring inequality. This report published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, also found that billionaires around the world saw their combined fortunes grow by $2.5 billion each day in 2018. The world’s richest man, Am...

A service delivery protest has turned violent as the community of Breyten in Mpumalanga are barricading the road in the area. Schooling and teaching have been disrupted. The community members say they delivered a memorandum of their grievances last year but the municipality has not addressed their issues. Guest: Muzi Tshirwa – Executive mayor at Sibande municipality

President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned the continuing acts of vandalism in schools across the country. He says if this continues - it will mean South Africa won't have a future as many learners will have been denied access to education. Ramaphosa says those who have unresolved issues with government, must refrain from using children as a tool to fight their battles and burn public schools. He was...

Limpopo premier Stan Mathabatha has arrived in Dennilton to meet protesting community members in Moutse. The community have been protesting since Monday demanding basic services such as jobs, water and proper roads. To get the latest on the ground. Guest: Maluti Obuseng – SABC reporter

Between 2015 and 2017 South Africa’s South Western Cape region experienced three of its lowest rainfall years on record. This led to the progressive depletion of water supply reservoirs and by the summer of 2017/18 there was a real danger that – without drastic reductions in water use – the region, and especially the city of Cape Town, would run out of water. According to experts, global warming h...

The Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC) has vowed that it will not allow a community survey proposed by Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe to take place at Xolobeni. Minister Mantashe visited the Xolobeni community yesterday, which has been divided over the proposed mining of sand dunes along the Wild Coast for over a decade. The proposed titanium mine would span just under 3,000 hectares, makin...

Former Bosasa chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi today showed the commission probing state capture a video in which businessman Gavin Watson counted money allegedly used to pay a bribe to secure a R14 million a month contract from the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA). He said Watson, the Bosasa chief executive, used his political ties and bribed state officials to win a lucrative cateri...

North West Education MEC, Sello Lehari, was expected to make an announcement about an hour ago on the outcome of investigations conducted at the Laerskool Schweizer-Reneke. Lehari appointed a team to probe allegations of racism in the school after a teacher at the school Elana Barkhuizen, took a photo of white and black Grade R learners seated separately in a classroom. guest: Freddy Sepeng, spoke...

The National Prosecuting Authority's Assest Forfeiture Unit will serve interim preservation orders on more than 16 people and companies that are facing corruption charges in connection with the North Sea Jazz Festival. The event was supposed to have been held in Durban in 2012 but it did not take place. The NPA and the police in the province served the order on ANC KwaZulu-Natal deputy chairperson...