Afternoon Drive with John Maytham

Guest: Tshidi Madia, EWN Senior politics journalist

The hearings of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector including Organs of State has been hearing evidence from Cyril Ramaphosa from 09h00 am today. We will hear the latest developments from EWN Senior Political Analyst Tshidi Madia. 

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Guest: Helen Zille

The Democratic Alliance says it will approach the Constitutional Court to oppose the Independent Electoral Commission's application to postpone the local government elections. Last week, the ANC said it would join the IEC in its bid to have the polls moved to next year.  This after an inquiry into the holding of the elections in October as planned, found that they were unlikely to be free and fair, given the current Covid-19 pandemic and regulations to counter it.

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Guest: Mark Maclean

Cape Town International Airport has been named the top airport in Africa for the 6th year in a row at the World Airport Awards.

It also won the Skytrax World Airport Award for Best Airport Staff in Africa, an accolade it last won in 2016.

Durban's King Shaka International Airport was ranked second on the continent, while OR Tambo International Airport  in Johannesburg came in third.

Cape Town's airport has however dropped in the global rankings from 23 last year to 33rd place, the lowest it has been in almost a decade.

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Guest: Prof. Francois Engelbrecht

Professor Francois Engelbrecht will discuss the results of the 2021 IPCC Study. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report was released today. Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion—such as continued sea level rise—are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years.

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Guest: Johan Kruger | Spokesperson at South African Post Office

On 16 August, The South African Post Office (Sapo) will send mail to Australia for the first time in more than a year. This is due to a one-off repatriation flight operated by Qantas Airline.

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Guest: Karyn Maughan

The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg has postponed former president, Jacob Zuma's corruption case to the 9 and 10 September in order to establish whether he is fit to stand trial.

Zuma, who is currently serving a 15-month jail term for defying a Constitutional Court ruling to appear before the State Capture Commission of Inquiry, was hospitalised last week with an undisclosed condition.

The former president's legal team has been instructed by the high court judge to submit a medical report by no later than 20 August, and that it should provide clarity on what is wrong with him.

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Guest:  Karmen Swanepoel who is an Accountant by Profession and a unique artist by passion. Karmen decorated her entire floor at home by using only 5 cent coins! Karmen Swanepoel spent 70 hours on her knees and a little over 50 000 coins. 

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Guest: Peter Fabricius

Troops from both Rwanda and Mozambique have recaptured the strategic port town of Mocimboa da Praia from insurgents. Rwandan forces were deployed to Mozambique last month to help Maputo regain control over its northern Cabo Delgado province, which is home to one of Africa’s biggest liquefied natural gas projects.

Fighting in the region began in 2017, but gained ground last year when insurgents linked to the Islamic State managed to capture entire towns.

Mocimboa da Praia had been crucial to the gas project, both for incoming international workers to its airport and the delivery of supplies to its port, until it was taken by rebels almost a year ago.

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Guest: Chris Yelland | Energy Analyst and MD at EE Business Intelligence 

Eskom has suspended several employees following an explosion at its Medupi Power Plant late on Sunday night, saying a deviation from procedure during a short-term outage at Unit 4 led to the blast. It says preliminary investigations suggest that air was introduced into the generator at a point when it still contained sufficient quantities of hydrogen to create an explosive mixture, which then ignited. The blast caused extensive damage to the unit.

Last week, Eskom announced that the power station was fully operational after the final generation unit came on line, some 14 years after construction got underway in May 2007.

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Guest: Nicola Jowell |  Ward Councillor for the Atlantic Seaboard 

There have been reports that the City of Cape Town is looking into proposals to limit the amount of time that cyclists will be allowed to use the Sea Point promenade.

News24 says the transport portfolio committee met last Thursday during which a proposal was tabled that would give bike riders access to the area only at specific times of the day.

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