The National Pulse

President Cyril Ramaphosa has launched the Women's Economic Assembly formed by a partnership between government, the private sector and women organisations and businesswomen. The Economic Assembly has a six-pillar plan which calls for the need to create more economic opportunities for women who are vulnerable to abuse due to poverty, unemployment and social inequality. For more on the launch, we'r...

The Anti-Disinformation Project have been tasked by the Electoral Commission of South Africa, IEC to look out for disinformation using technological tools to monitor social media as well as media coverage.  Anti-Disinformation Project Intends to hold politicians and those spreading disinformation to account ahead of the local government elections in November. GUEST: Nick Cowen, Anti-Disinform...

MEC for Human Settlements, Urban Planning and CoGTA Lebogang Maile says it is worrying that opponents of the Provincial Government are spreading false narratives that create an impression that the Con Court issued only one "unanimous judgment" that found the dissolution of the Tshwane Council unlawful. Briefing the media earlier on the Constitutional court judgment pertaining to the decision of th...

We examine JJ Strijdom’s apology for being part of the prosecutors who unfairly prosecuted anti-apartheid activists. EFF leader, Julius Malema ordered him to apologize during the JSC interviews and he obliged and apologized for being part of the system that used apartheid laws to prosecute liberation struggle icons. Guest: Mbekezeli Benjamin, Researcher at Judges Matter

Did you know that an estimated 1.14 billion people use tobacco and nearly 8 million die each year of tobacco-related causes? Well, according to a new report that was released recently by members of the International Commission to Reignite the Fight Against Smoking - global efforts to end smoking have stalled and require a drastic overhaul to prevent one billion people from dying in this century. T...

World News: Following Australia’s announcement that they are going to stop detaining asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea (PNG) at the end of December. We speak to Brooks Spector about this controversial asylum detention deal. Since 2013, asylum seekers attempting to reach Australia by boat have been sent to detention centres in Papua New Guinea. Guest: Brooks Spector is the Associate Edi...

According to a UN Children's Emergency Fund report - 65% of South African children and youth admitted to suffering from some form of mental health issue but not seeking help. The UN poll also found that increased poverty and a lack of hope for the future were the top reasons given for children and young people’s anxiety. Guest: Muriel Mafico, Deputy Representative at UNICEF South Africa

The sexual abuse charges against a 39-year old woman from Silverlakes, in the east of Pretoria, have nearly doubled, since her arrest in November 2019. She faces 18 charges of statutory rape, sexual grooming, and use of a minor to produce child pornography in the Pretoria Regional Court. Guest: Ms Lisa Vetten, Research project Consultant University of Johannesburg

Recently, the Council for Medical Schemes gave its stamp of approval to the merger of Hosmed Medical Scheme and Sizwe Medical Fund, creating South Africa's eighth-largest open medical scheme, marking the beginning of what is likely to be a revolution in South Africa's medical scheme industry. We're now joined on the line by Dr Simon Mangcwatywa, Sizwe Hosmed's Principal Executive Officer to talk t...

Workers affiliated to the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, NUMSA are today marching to the offices of the Metals and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council, asking for an eight percent salary increase. Employers are offering a four point 5 percent increase. The strike action is taking place in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, the Eastern Cape, the Northern Cape and the Western Cape. GUEST...

On World News today we look at the escalating tensions between Algeria and France. Apparently, tensions between the two countries have been growing since France decided to cut the number of visas issued to Algerians, Tunisians and Moroccans. We are also told that Emmanuel Macron’s comments made matters worse after he argued that the “official history of Algeria has been rewritten, not...

Gauteng health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi has revealed that over 200 Steve Biko Academic Hospital patients have been waiting for surgeries since 2010. According to her, the orthopaedics department has the most number of patients waiting for surgery.   GUEST: DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC Jack Bloom  

As JSC re-runs interviews for two ConCourt judge positions. We hear from Advocate Dali Mpofu about how things have been proceeding so far. In case you haven’t been following this particular story - the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has nominated the same five candidates for appointment to the Constitutional Court as it did in April. Guest: Advocate Dali Mpofu, Spokesperson of the Judicia...

Have you ever wondered as to what causes lingering symptoms of long Covid? Well, according to scientists from Stellenbosch University, the lingering symptoms that occur in patients with long Covid might be due to the presence of persistent circulating plasma micro clots that are resistant to fibrinolysis. Guest: Professor Resia Pretorius, head of Stellenbosch University’s Physiological Scien...

Eastern Cape police have arrested a 49-year-old grandfather after his grandson was shot and killed by his cousin. The seven-year-old boy was killed after he and two of his cousins found a gun under their grandfather's bed. One of Kwanele Zide's cousins, an 11-year-old boy, was allegedly fiddling with the gun when it went off, fatally wounding Zide in the head. Police have since arrested the boy's...

The Constitutional court has declared the decision by the Gauteng Executive Committee to dissolve the Tshwane City Council in 2020 as unlawful. The DA has welcomed the judgement saying they have always maintained that the decision to dissolve the city council was politically motivated. GUEST: Professor Dirk Kotze, Professor of political studies at Unisa

ActionSA has threatened to take legal action against the IEC after the party's name was left out from the ballot list ahead of the local government elections. This after the IEC presented final draft ballot papers for wards in Gauteng at the weekend. The party gave the IEC until 10am this morning to address the absence of ActionSA's name on ballot paper designs it had produced for the elections bu...

Signatories of the ANC in eight provinces are calling for the ANC disciplinary committee to take action against President Cyril Ramaphosa for taking money from private funders to campaign for his presidential election campaign in 2017. Onica Maphisa, the co-ordinator of the signatories joins us now to elaborate further on this……   Guest: Onica Maphisa, the co-ordinator of the si...

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been sworn in for a second five-year term. His inauguration comes as a nearly year-long war in the northern region of Tigray spreads into other parts of the country and watchdogs warn that repressive government practices are on the return. Guest: Colleta Wanjohi, Channel Africa’s correspondent based in Addis Ababa

Former Free State Police, Roads and Transport MEC Sam Mashinini has been fired. Mashinini says his relationship with the provincial premier Sisi Ntombela has broken down. GUEST: Former Free State Police, Roads and Transport MEC Sam Mashinini 

City of Ekurhuleni Mayor Mzwandile Masina was reportedly involved in a high-speed crash after curfew hours. According to AmaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism, the accident happened in August last year. It's believed Mayor Masina was driving a luxury state vehicle without permission, when he rammed into the back of a large goods truck driving down the N12 West highway near Alberton, In J...

There have been recent reports about transgressions at schools relating to the care of children and according to The Guardian, “South Africa has some of the best reactive, but poorest proactive legislation around sexual abuse in the world, contributing to excessively high incidents of rape and related crimes”. Guest: Marc Hardwick, MD of The Guardian

Earlier today, several political parties who are going to take part in this year’s local government elections pledged their commitment to the Electoral Code of Conduct. Joining us to discuss the significance of today’s signing ceremony is….   Guest: Commissioner Mosotho Moepya, is a member of the Electoral Commission of South Africa

Yesterday, Malawi’s former deputy speaker reportedly shot himself in the head inside parliament, where he had gone to discuss vehicle benefits entitled to him when he left office in 2019. Following this unfortunate incident, Malawi parliament released a statement saying that the incident was linked to frustration with the implementation of his conditions of service. Guest: Jack McBrams, Jour...

We examine the controversial deal, this after the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, NERSA declined to give details on the figures related to the cost of emergency power generation in the country. However the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has estimated that the gas-to-electricity project could cost taxpayers more than R200-billion over 20 years. Several weeks back NERSA ap...