The View Point

GUEST: Maurice Smithers, National Coordinator for the South African chapter of the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance (SAAPA)

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, held in Davos in Switzerland, is the foremost creative force for engaging the world's top leaders in collaborative activities to shape global, regional and industry agendas at the beginning of each year. The Forum's mission is to improving the state of the world and this guides the design and development of the Annual Meeting objectives. Guest: Mr Andile No...

Cyber risks are becoming more complex and challenging and at the rate at which digital technology is evolving and disrupting traditional business models, cyber risks seem to evolve even faster. Cyber risk has moved beyond data breaches and privacy, there are now sophisticated attacks that are disrupting entire countries, industries, businesses and supply chains. Guest: Mr John Mc Loughlin, a Cyber...

Tomorrow marks the last day of the Eastern Cape schools oversight visits. Since the 15th of January, members of the Legislature have been on intensive schools oversight visits across the province. This schools oversight visits programme aims to assess the state of schools readiness and factors that influenced grade 12 results. It also wants to ensure that teaching and learning commerce on the firs...

This week scientists made a landmark discovery when ragweed – a highly allergenic weed native to North America – was detected in South African pollen spore traps for the very first time. Guest: Prof Jonny Peter, head of the Allergy Unit at UCT’s Lung Institute

We’re talking about the Zero Dropout campaign, which is a project of the DG Murray Trust and their aim is to halve the rate of school dropout by 2030. Although at least 40% of all young people in South Africa drop out of school, there is no national task force focused on addressing this crisis. While the overall matric pass rate has improved over time from 58% in 1994 to 81% in 2019, this doesn’t...

When looking at the current water and sanitation situation in South Africa, would it be just to say that municipalities have everything under control? Sewage leakages, short water supply, uncollected refuse, municipalities being place under administration – the list can go on and on. But the major issue right now is that of municipalities and their ability to deliver water and sanitation services....

The Chairperson of the board has resigned; there’s a new CEO (whether he will stick around or not, nobody knows); the Deputy President feels that Eskom misled the President but the Presidency doesn’t agree; there’s still load shedding and it is impacting the economy at large; is Eskom using the right power generation model for SA; are there engineers running the ship at Eskom is it all in the hand...

Songezo was in conversation Kedibone Mulaudzi - Comedian, MC and organiser of the Soweto Comedy Festival The Soweto Comedy Festival is set to take place this Saturday the 30th of November. Since its inception 5 years ago the festival has immensely helped in developing comedy brands of Trevor Noah, Eugene Khoza, Tumi Morake, Kedibone Mulaudzi and others. This year, the lineup includes comedian Kagi...

Songezo was in conversation Thembelani Mrwetyana – Uyinene’s uncle The family of Uyinene Mrwetyana is launching a nonprofit Foundation her honour in Grahamstown tomorrow. Uyinene is the late UCT student who was raped and murdered by former post office worker, Luyanda Botha, 42, in August. Her death sparked outrage in South Africa and around the world. Botha pleaded guilty to the crime and was hand...

Songezo was in conversation with Ms Gail Masondo, Life In Recovery coach; Ms Penny Lebyane, Media Personality and activist; Ms Thembi Masondo, employee at the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union AND Survivor of Domestic Abuse Thousands of women and children are murdered, sexually harassed, physically abused, in some cases sold for the purpose of forced labour or sexual expl...

Songezo was in conversation Prof Davis Mosoma, Chairperson of the CRL Commission Last week, the CRL Rights Commission hosted hearings that will assist in making sure that all eleven languages are accorded the same rights and treatment. Language, in the Afrikan context, plays a big role in both communication and upholding cultural ways. Will we ever find common ground on language issues in South Af...

Songezo was in conversation Patrick Godana, Eastern Cape Provincial Manager at Sonke Gender Justice Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke) launches its #BeAccountable campaign to coincide with 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children. The campaign aims to highlight the importance of a culture of accountability amongst those who have an obligation or responsibility to promote and realiz...

Songezo was in conversation with James Hodge, Chief Economist at the Competition Commission and Ezra Ndwandwe, Business Analyst and Entrepreneur The Competition Commission released the final findings of its Grocery Retail Sector Market Inquiry, finding that national supermarket chains have by and large limited small and competitor retailers’ activity in the sector over the last few years. The mark...

Are we progressing or digressing in the fight against HIV? Songezo was in conversation Dr Chuka Onaga - Deputy Chief of Party at Right to Care As a build up to World Aids Day, zoom in on South Africa’s fight with HIV/Aids and talk about the challenges to ending HIV/Aids and why the HIV infection rate is still so high? We’ll also talk about the research journey – how have the ongoing scientific adv...

Songezo was in conversation with Advocate Gerrie Nel – Head of AfriForum’s Private Prosecutions Unit South African rights group, AfriForum, made legal history when they launched the country’s first dedicated private prosecutions unit to be headed by former state prosecutor Gerrie Nel. The development came amid accusations that the country’s National Prosecuting Authority was politically biased and...

Songezo was in conversation with Sabelo Mbuku - Head of Marketing and Communications at the Transport Education Training Authority (TETA) The TETA (Transport Education Training Authority) is one of the 21 SETAs that we have in the country and their focus is in facilitating skills development and training in the transport sector. Last year, they launched the #TETACARES HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaign S...

Songezo was in conversation with the Medical Advisor to the Cipla Foundation – Dr Harold As part of a National Department of Health initiative which aims to improve access to chronic medication for stable patients who are dependent on the public sector, the Cipla Foundation will help to expand the national footprint of the patient-centric Central Chronic Medicines Dispensing and Distribution (CCMD...

Songezo was in conversation with SANTACO Spokesperson, Thabisho Molelekwa and Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport, Jacob Mamabolo. Taxi violence is a big problem in South Africa. Every week, somewhere in the country there are at least two cases that are opened with the SAPS related to taxi violence. Issues around taxi routes, rank space, the poaching of passengers from one taxi association by anot...

Songezo was in conversation with Tebogo Mafodi, Mike Clark and Kealeboga Gift Mogapi. In a highly competitive market small to medium business have their own challenges much like any business. There are plenty of reasons why small businesses either fail or underperform. Primarily it’s due to lack of business skills, inadequate access to market, non-compliance, unsuccessful marketing initiates, mism...

Mental health is one of those health issues that we talk about during a certain month or when we hear news of someone famous committing suicide as a result of depression – but how often do we consider the importance of getting a balanced mental healthcare sector in South Africa? What are the dangers of having a mentally unbalanced society? And when looking at interventions that are made at grassro...

Songezo Mabece was in conversation with the former Springboks Team Manager, Mr Zola Yeye At a time when South Africa is experiencing profound challenges, we have rallied around the victory in Japan. South Africans white and black celebrated wildly on Saturday and expressed hopes that the Springboks' Rugby World Cup win, inspired by black captain Siya Kolisi, would bring the nation together.

Songezo Mabece was in conversation with SAfm Sport On Presenter THABISO MOSIA They did an analysis of the match and the formation of the team. They also spoke about what this means for social cohesion, inspiring home amongst children who wish to be rugby players and sports development in South Africa.

Songezo Mabece interviewed the cast members of the musical, Zak Hendrikz who plays LONNY and Lebohang Toko who plays JA’KEITH Slowly but surely we are getting used to the concept of theater as a country, and more and more we’re seeing adaptations of international theatrical plays trickle in but it’s always sweeter when they incorporate our own talent into the musical. Hit musical, Rock of Ages is...

Songezo Mabece was in conversation with comedians Thapelo FlatKing and Tiki Pasha Well, they say laughter is good for the soul and I’m sure most of us can attest to that. As a country we can definitely use some good news and some laughter right now. So we thought we’d invite a couple of Comedians for some comic relief. Thapelo KingFlat is hosting a Comedy show at year’s Homecoming Africa. Homecomi...