Afternoon Drive with John Maytham

Guest: Prof Mike Picker | Deputy Head of the Department of Biological Sciences at University Of Capetown

A listener contacted the programme yesterday saying that her family had noticed an absence of dead bugs on their cars as they arrived at their holiday home in the Eastern Cape, having driven there from various parts of the country.

The question raised was - if this lack of squashed bugs was indicative of a general decline in insect numbers. And a quick search on Google showed that they are indeed vanishing at an alarming rate.

A new study published last week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that every year, the number of insects in some parts of the planet drops by a percentage point or two.

But is this the case in South Africa?  To find out, we speak to Prof Mike Picker, emeritus

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Guest: Mike Van Graan | Executive Director Of The African Arts Institute

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Guest: Jacob Parakilas

US president Joe Biden is about to start his first full day in office following his inauguration as the country's 46th president yesterday.

The ceremony took place in a city under heavy guard after a mob rampaged through the Capitol about two weeks ago in protest against the election outcome.

In his speech, Biden spoke of the need for unity and warned that the coronavirus pandemic in the US was entering its "deadliest period".

Just hours after being sworn in, Biden signed 15 executive orders, including reversing former president Donald Trump's policies on climate change and immigration.

We speak to  US political analyst and Associate at LSE IDEAS, Jacob Parakilas, on the line from Nigeria.

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Guest: Sasha Planting | Associate Editor  at Daily Maverick

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Guest: Malusi Booi | Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements at City of Cape Town

We speak to Malusi Booi, the City of Cape Town's Mayco member for Human Settlements about an article in today's Daily Maverick which suggests that officials are dragging their feet over a proposed affordable housing development on the site of the old Salt River Market.

Nick Budlender writes that the market could be the most well-located and socially mixed affordable housing development in South Africa, but that no-one at the City of Cape Town is driving the development forward. 

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Guest: Joanne Yawitch | Ceo at The National Business Initiative

A new initiative was officially launched on Tuesday which aims to define the role that finance should play in supporting South Africa and India’s transition to more climate-resilient economies. 

 

The  ‘Just Transition Finance Roadmaps in South Africa and India Project’ is a multi-partner project with backers including South Africa's National Business Initiative, which is a coalition working towards sustainable growth and development in the country.

 

Initiative partners say funding could play a key role in supporting just energy transitions and that the development of finance roadmaps can help guide banks and other financiers as to where future investment was required.

 

This could also lay out how funding could be mobilised to maximise the social and economic benefits of these investments.

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Guest: Peter Fabricius

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Guest: Rebecca Davis | Journalist and Author at Daily Maverick

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Guest:  Khaya Sithole

National Treasury has said that raising taxes is one of the options it is looking at as a way to raise what the department of health estimates is 20 billion rand South Africa will need to vaccinate the entire country.

It is also reportedly looking into several other possible funding mechanisms including widening the budget deficit and reprioritising government spending.

We speak to independent analyst and columnist, Khaya Sithole,  about whether raising taxes is the best way to go about this.

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Guest: Leon Traut, Labour consultant at the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa (Fedhasa)

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