The Weekend View

Teacher unions and the basic education department are at loggerheads over the Annual National Assessments, or ANA's. The department postponed the ANA's from this month to December; however SADTU - and other unions - are threatening to boycott them in December. COSATU says the ANA's do not add value to the South African system while the Democratic Alliance says its laid a complaint with the Human R...

Elvis Presslin spoke to National Consumer Commission spokesperson, Trevor Hattingh on a preliminary investigation into nine suspected pyramid schemes for suspected contraventions to the Consumer Protection Act

MSF or Doctors without borders' Borrie Le Grange talks about the situation of migrants trying to get into Europe and what MSF is doing to help.

On Sunday the 13th of September, the late Benedict Daswa will be beatified by the Roman Catholic Church in his home village of Mbahe in Limpopo. Beatification is a process where the church recognises a deceased person's entrance into Heaven, following which they are known as a blessed. Those who are beatifies are believed to have the capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his o...

Several incidents, where victims suffer at the hands of their partners were reported this week. Just to mention a few...a woman appeared at the Alexander Magistrate court after fatally stabbing her husband and his lover and an ANCYL member also appeared in in court after he sjamboked his girl friend to death. This is happening as the trial of Sindisiwe Manqele charged with killing hip hop artist N...

North West Local Government MEC Collen Maine is the new ANC Youth League president. He was elected unopposed at the league's 25th national congress at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, north of Johannesburg. Maine's contenders, National Executive Committee member Pule Mabe and the league's former deputy president Ronald Lamola failed to meet the required threshold. This after they were nominated from t...

The Department of Education has condemned a decision by the Congress of South African Students (Cosas), which has called for pupils to assault teachers who are still using corporal punishment. The department says that the call is irresponsible and unacceptable. The Education department urged Cosas members to report incidents of corporal punishment, than to take action. We spoke to Naseema COSAS Na...

Recession has been a buzz word this week, following the less than stellar economic growth figures released this week. According to Statistics South Africa, the seasonally adjusted real GDP at market prices for the second quarter of 2015 decreased by an annualised rate of 1 point 3 per cent compared with an increase of 1 point 3 per cent during the first quarter of 2015. This, along with recent rat...

The National Credit Regulator (NCR) has called on the National Consumer Tribunal to fine JDG Trading and JDG Micro Life for contravening the Consumer Protection Act through their credit insurance practices. The NCR recently found that the group, which includes retail stores Joshua Doore, Morkels and HifiCorp, has been charging pensioners for retrenchment cover and disabled consumers for disability...

The 31st of August is African Traditional Medicine Day which seeks to shine a light on the holistic discipline of traditional healing which involves the use of indigenous herbalism combined with aspects of African spirituality. In the year 2000, the 50th session of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Committee for Africa met in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso where Ministers of Health dopted re...

Packages and lives looking at the tragedy of Marikana on the 16th August 2012

As we mark the third anniversary of the Marikana killings at Lonmin mine in Rustenburg in the North West, a religious leader who tried to broker a deal between striking miners and Lonmin bosses in 2012 can vividly recall the nightmare that unfolded on the week leading up to that fateful day. Bishop Jo Seoka's attempts to resolve the Marikana protests failed. He heard the fatal shootings while on a...

A study by UNISA has shown that violent criminals believe they will get away with their first crime. On average, violent criminals will commit around one-hundred crimes before their first arrest. This could be as long as seven years after the start of their criminal career. We caught up with UNISA criminologist professor, Rudolph Zinn who says South Africa's low conviction rate for serious and vio...

Suicide is on the rise among young children, that's according to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group. This as 14-year-old Klara Gottert is laid to rest today after her body was found at the Northgate mall in Johannesburg on Tuesday evening. The police are treating her death as a suicide. We spoke to clinical psychologist, Liane Lurie....

The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has criticised the move to introduce Mandarin as a language on offer in public schools. The basic education department says that the language will be available optionally at the start of the new school year in 2016. We spoke to SADTU deputy general secretary, Nkosana Dolopi, senior researcher at the institute of global dialogue, Sausha Naidoo and...

Current Affairs programme which provides listeners with the latest local and International news hosted by Elvis Preslin. Tune in 104-107 every Saturday and Sunday morning from 6 to 7 am

Dr Pierre Aycard from the Linguistic Section of the School of African and Gender Studies, Anthropology and Linguistics at the University of Cape Town says interaction between children in the city& use of Iscamtho gives life to a new mixed language...

The SA Human Rights Commission will be taking action against what it calls unconstitutional garnishee orders. The Commission was recently friends of the court in a class action case brought by the Stellenbosch University Legal Aid Clinic, on behalf of 12 farm workers, against various micro lenders. The Western Cape High Court ruled in favour of the farmers citing the debt collecting procedure used...

August is organ donor month and looked at the many successful stories of organ recipients and how they are helping dispel myths about organ donation

The South African Council of Churches has called on all pastors to belong to a regulatory body. This came out during a discussion the council held this week with 150 leaders of churches on various issue including the conduct of some pastors and so-called prophets who engage in strange practices. This comes in the wake of reports of some religious leaders who abuse their positions by telling their...

Today marks the beginning of Women's Month. Although the average woman now has more options and opportunities available to her than her mother or grandmother, total emancipation is a long way off. Almost 60 years since the historic women's march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in protest against the pass laws, women find themselves experiencing complex challenges. We spoke to Chartered Marketer...

The Banking Association South Africa is calling on government to ensure a holistic and balanced approach to legislating on the controversial expropriation bill. In a statement the council stated that this will help mitigate the unquantifiable risks of the provisions contained in the current version of the bill, to the banking sector. We spoke to Cas Coovadia, managing director of the banking counc...

The South African job market is under threat with the implementation of changes to section 198 of the Labour Relations Act, that requires employers to appoint temporary workers to permanent positions after 3 months. We spoke to Simon Colman, underwriting Executive at SHA Specialist Underwriters....

More than two hundred commuters were injured last night when a passenger train slammed into the back of another train in Booysens, south of Johannesburg. Search and rescue teams spent hours scouring the wreck of the trains to ensure that all the commuters were accounted for. More than one hundred emergency services personnel were deployed to assist the injured. We spoke to one of the first reporte...

For the past few years, SAfm has heeded the call to participate in community-building initiatives to celebrate Nelson Mandela International Day on the 18th of July. Madiba's call has inspired us to make a difference to the lives of those around us. It's our little attempt to address some social injustices facing thousands of people in our country. This year, we headed to the North-West province to...