Afternoon Drive with John Maytham

The continuation of British & Irish Lions 2021 tour of South Africa remains in balance after a spate of positive Covid-19 tests in the Springbok and Bulls camps plunged the fixtures into disarray. 

 

The visitors have played just 1 one game in the series and are due to play the second today, with kick off at Ellis Park at 18h this evening.

But the Daily Maverick's sports editor, Craig Ray, says the increasingly pointed question is whether this tour will make it to games six, seven and eight — the three Tests against the Springboks - after the Bok camp registered 11 positive Covid cases in the past two days.

We speak to him about this.

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Karyn Maughan. Legal journalist: News24. and  Nkosikhona Duma. EWN reporter. 

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Yesterday on the show we spoke to Secion 27's Faranaaz Veriava about an upcoming court case to continue fighting for school meals for learners.

The organisation, together with the Equal Education Law Centre, are representing Equal Education and the school governing bodies of two schools in Limpopo.

They say the Department of Basic Education and provincial education departments are failing to rollout the National School Nutrition Programme to all eligible learners in South Africa.

In the interview, Veriava suggested that the Western Cape Education Department was also not a good performer in terms of providing food parcels to children when they are not in school.

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New research conducted on behalf of Insurance Claims Africa or ICA has found that the short-term insurance industry earned record profits during the pandemic, while clients suffered because on non-payment of claims.

The ICA's CEO, Ryan Woolley, says many of the businesses waiting for their claims to be paid out have already closed, resulting in a negative impact on the economy, and adding to an already alarming unemployment rate.

Insurance Claims Africa is representing over 850 claimants in their ongoing fight to receive final payments from insurers.

 

We speak to Ryan Woolley about this and other findings in the research

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Dr Richards Lessells,Infectious disease specialist at the KZN Research Innovation and sequencing platform at the University of Kwazulu Natal.

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The withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan after almost 20 years on the ground has stoked fears of a resurgence of the Taliban.

They have reportedly seized one district after another in recent days, overrunning bases housing Afghan government troops.

Experts are also concerned that the US withdrawal also gives al-Qaeda an opportunity to rebuild its network and once again be able to plot attacks around the world.

We speak to Prof Paul Cornish, visiting professor at LSE Ideas, London School of Economics, an Associate Fellow at the Council on Geostrategy, and a specialist on Afghanistan.

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Nicola Cooper | Trends Analyst at Nicola Cooper and Associates

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Cosatu and the Restaurant Association of SA say an in-principle agreement was reached at the National Economic Development and Labour Council, Nedlac to reinstate temporary employer/employee relief scheme or TERS.

But the acting spokesperson for the Department of Employment and Labour, Musa Zondo, says this is still to be confirmed by Cabinet which is expected to meet on the matter today.

He added that a decision still needs to be taken on which industries may benefit.

TERS payments commenced at the start of hard lockdown last year to workers negatively affected by Covid-19 restrictions, and were suspended in March.

We speak to RASA's CEO, Wendy Alberts.

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Guest: Dr Els Broens

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Guest: Faranaaz Veriava

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