Afternoon Drive with John Maytham

Guest: Wayne Minaar

We speak to the spokesperson for the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, Wayne Minaar, to find out how the JMPD plans to manage the situation in Hillbrow and other parts of the city on New Year's Eve.

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Guest: Tessa Dooms | Independent Social Analyst

We speak to social development practitioner, Tessa Dooms, about how to change our Covid behaviour.

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Guest: Thando Kubheka, EWN reporter

In the latest Covid 19 statistics for South Africa, KwaZulu Natal accounts for the most active cases sitting at just over 50,000 people.  But the province's health department has dismissed reports that the province is running out of beds due to the spike, saying it has implemented various measures to manage the rapid spread of the virus.  We speak to EWN's Thaddo Kubheka who has been following the story.

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Guest: Gavin Grey

In Britain, MPs and peers are expected to approve the European Union (future relationship) bill today and for it to get royal assent in what will be a frantic day of parliamentary activity.

The signing of the bill will allow Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government to sign and ratify the 1,246-page treaty sealed on Christmas Eve.

The 11-month Brexit transition period expires in the first second of 2021 in Europe, so at 23h on New Year's eve in the UK,  and 1 in the morning South African time.

We speak to our London correspondent Gavin Grey.

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Guest: Kaylynn Palm | Reporter at EWN

An Imizamo Yethu mother is desperately awaiting news from authorities some 4 months after her little boy, Anothando Mhlobo went missing while playing with his friends in the area.  Last week a resident found the body of a child in a sandy area of the settlement and his mother believes it is her child.  But she has to wait for the authorities to conclude DNA tests to see if this is really the case.  We speak to EWN's Kaylynn Palm who has visited the family.

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Guest: Mario 

Yesterday, just before the 17h30 headlines, we got a call from a man called Mario in Equestria, East Pretoria. He explained he had had Covid and suffered lung damage.  He's been sent home with an oxygen machine which he has to be on all the time, but it works on electricity. He'd seen that his neighbourhood was to be experiencing loadshedding from 22h last night and again today and was worried about what to do.  Thanks to the assistance of Ntoba from Impala Health who heard of his plight, they managed to get a special oxygen tank to him before loadshedding started.  We speak to Mario today to find out how things are going.

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Guest: Jan Vermeulen | Editor-at-large at MyBroadband.co.za

As of the 1 January, those of you with an older android or iPhone may either lose access to WhatsApp altogether or not be able to access some features on the messaging app.  To find out more, we speak to Jan Vermeulen, editor at large for MyBroadband.

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Guest: Melusi Tshabalala  Author

We speak to Melusi Tshabalala, bestselling author of "Magenge, We Need to Talk” about what some have described as an 'emotional' speech last night by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

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Guest: Culton Scovia Nakamya

Ugandans go to the polls in general elections in January that have been marred by pre-election violence. President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power for 36 years, has changed the constitution to be able to run again. Analysts fear that this violence will not stop at the polls.

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Guest: Dr Simon Howell | Research Fellow  at Centre for Criminology at UCT

Under the new Covid-19 regulations, not wearing a mask has become an offence, plus various other new rules like not being allowed to go to beaches, dams, rivers, and so on, will require lots of boots on the ground to police.  We ask Dr Simon Howell, research fellow at UCT's Centre for Criminology, if there are enough policeman to even begin to get to grips with the situation.

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