The National Pulse

The Assistant Editor at the Sunday Independent, Piet Rampedi says the will not retract their story on how the Bushiris escaped South Africa with the assistance by local and Malawian officials. The Sunday Independent at the weekend reported that the Bushiris reportedly used false diplomatic passports, fake names and cosmetic facial changes to flee the country with the aid of collaborated efforts be...

President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Tsakani Maluleke as the new Auditor-General of South Africa. Her appointment Maluleke follows the passing of Kimi Makwetu who passed away due to illness on the 11th of November, just weeks before the expiry of his term of office. Maluleke has served as Deputy Auditor-General since 2014. Her appointment makes Maluleke the first woman to hold this position in...

Did the South African and Malawian government work in unison to smuggle self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary out of the country? The Sunday Independent at the weekend reported that the Bushiris reportedly used false diplomatic passports, fake names and cosmetic facial changes to flee the country with the aid of collaborated efforts between Malawi and South African officials....

On Friday last week, Moody’s Investors Service joined Fitch Ratings in lowering the country’s credit ratings. Reacting to the news, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said the decision by Fitch and Moody’s to downgrade the country further is a painful one. The downgrade will not only have immediate implications for our borrowing costs, it will also constrain our fiscal framework. Joining us to explain...

Hindu movement groups are calling for Diwali to be considered for inclusion on the South African calendar as a public holiday. They say this would be consistent with international best practice of many multi-religious countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius which accommodate minority faiths on their calendars. For more on this we are joined by…… Guest: Vedhan Singh, President of South...

World News: Three years ago, after 37 years in power, Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe stepped down. His successor and former vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, promised a break from Mugabe's authoritarian rule and economic mismanagement, declaring a "new Zimbabwe" that is "open for business." To what extent has Mnangagwa delivered on his promises? Three years later – is there a politica...

As promised we will continue yesterday's discussion on malls, petrol stations and other places that charge patrons R2 or R5, to use their toilets. The discussion on toilet fees sparked mixed reaction from many of our listeners; with many of you insisting that nobody should be charged to use a public toilet, while others say this will ensure that the toilets are cleaned at all times and that no vag...

Hundreds of EFF supporters are being prevented from getting close to the Brackenfell High School in Cape Town as they protest against alleged racism. Police earlier fired stun grenades and used water cannons to disperse a large group making their way to the school grounds. The City of Cape Town has granted permission for 100 members to protest at the school. The EFF is unhappy over an alleged whit...

GUEST: Guillaume Smith, Chairperson of the School Governing Body at Brackenfall High School, In the Western Cape

The Democratic Alliance says its Western Cape Provincial Congress will proceed as scheduled tomorrow with the election of all positions taking place as planned. This despite one of the most serious allegations that has ever been made in the DA that one of the candidates for leadership had been involved in a planned “hit” against his opponent. The Federal Legal Commission of the party has made its...

Premier League managers want heading curbed if it leads to dementia. But according to some managers, this can only be stopped if there is well researched scientific evidence that proves that heading the ball 10 times during training is going to cause players dementia. This topic has resurfaced following the death of England’s Nobby Stiles. Stiles and many of his 1966 World Cup winning team mates h...

The SABC is facing mounting political pressure from various parties to suspend its planned retrenchments. Earlier on COPE, EFF and the ANC marched at the Public Broadcaster's head office, here in Auckland Park, to show their respective support and solidarity with SABC workers facing retrenchments. Guest: Political Analyst, Writer and Activist, Dr Dale McKinley

Eskom is currently conducting meter audits and removing illegal connections in Waterfall Estate to curb energy losses and to recover revenue due to Eskom. They are also calling on South Africans to report illegal connections wherever they are. Earlier this year, the power utility revealed that they have incurred costs to the value of as much as R188m related to theft and vandalism of the electrici...

The bail application of the self-proclaimed prophet, Shepherd Bushiri and his wife, Mary, has started in the Malawian capital, Lilongwe. They handed themselves over to the Malawi authorities yesterday after becoming aware of an Interpol arrest warrant for them, They fled South Africa last week breaking the bail conditions set by the Pretoria Magistrate's court. The Pretoria court has since revoked...

As we observe World Toilet Day, we speak to Shenilla Mohamed, Executive Director of Amnesty International South Africa. She is of the view that government must eradicate all pit latrines in schools and ensure that all learners have access to safe and hygienic water and sanitation facilities. Guest: Shenilla Mohamed, Executive Director of Amnesty International South Africa

On World News today we focus on what’s happening in Uganda where several people have been killed and dozens wounded in protests that have been sparked by the arrest of presidential candidate Bobi Wine. His supporters blocked roads and burned tyres in the capital, Kampala, prompting police to fire tear gas and bullets. Wine has been in politics since 2017 when he won a seat in the national assembly...

South Africa's prohibitionist and punitive response to drugs has not reduced the supply, demand or harms related to their use and trade. Is it time to rethinking prohibition towards an effective response to drugs in the country? The Institute for Security Studies, ISS today hosted an online event on options for rethinking South Africa's current drug policy landscape and discussed the impact of the...

The National Taxi Alliance(NTA) says it does not recognize all the decisions and resolutions that were taken at the recent National Taxi Lekgothla. It accuses transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula of snubbing the alliance and wanting to put it under the South African National Taxi Council. It also wants answers on the non- payment of 1-point-35 billion rand Covid-19 relief funds to the taxi industry....

The Xubera Institute for Research and Development warns that black professionals need to "confront their apartheid and colonialism-engineered subjugation and determine the country's socio-economic and political direction". Xolani Dube, a senior researcher at the Xubera Institute says if black professionals continue folding their arms, they risk being further targeted, marginalised and destroyed by...

As tensions continue to rise in Ethiopia’s rebellious northern Tigray region – we speak to Arina Muresan from the Institute for Global Dialogue on what needs to be done to make Ethiopia politically stable. This as over 27 000 Ethiopians have fled into neighbouring Sudan, burdening villages that have been praised for their generosity, though they have little to give. Guest: Arina Muresan, Researche...

The SABC has released its annual financial results. The Public broadcaster released the results ahead of pending retrenchments at the SABC. Take a listen to SABC Chief Financial Officer, Yolande van Biljon outlining financial situation at the national broadcaster... GUEST: Yolande van Biljon, SABC Chief Financial Officer, CFO

Former Kwazulu Natal deputy Speaker Mluleki Ndobe, who was once charged in connection with the death of former ANCYL secretary general, Sindiso Magaqa has been laid to rest at his ancestral home of Umzimkhulu. Last year Ndobe spent time in police custody along with four other accused after they were arrested in connection with the crime. The charges against Ndobe were later provisionally withdrawn...

Former Transnet Capital Projects executive Herbert Msagala will have to forefeit all his assets to the state following a court ruling in favour of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU). Msagala is accused of corruption between 2015 and 2016, when he was a senior executive at Transnet. The SIU who were investigating the matter strongly believed the assets are the proceeds of crime. Speaking to Safm...

We outline the objectives of the 12th BRICS Summit, which is currently underway (being hosted virtually by Russian President Vladimir Putin). Since 2009, the BRICS nations have met annually at formal summits – but how much have they achieved since then and what is the role of BRICS in influencing global geopolitics? Is there unity among BRICS and if there is why do BRICS countries keep quiet when...

On World News today, we unlock UKZN’s ground-breaking study on HIV exposed uninfected infants. The World Health Organization’s guidelines on the Prevention from Mother to Child programme recommends that all HIV exposed uninfected infants (HEU’s) born to HIV positive mothers receive cotrimoxazole (CTX) prophylaxis, commencing at 4–6 weeks of age and continued until HIV infection can be excluded. Ho...