BizNews Radio

A 12-year-old girl who has special needs is one of the hostages taken by Hamas terrorists during the worst ever terror attack on Israeli soil. In this emotional interview with BizNews, Noya’s mother Galit Dan pleads with the kidnappers not to harm her daughter. “Don't hurt her. The Quran says that if you have someone in your house, you shouldn't hurt him. You should take care of him. I'm sure there's women there, there's mothers. I'm sure you understand that she's someone's daughter. Be kind. Find your heart.” And Galit sends her daughter this message: “I'm doing everything I can to get you out of there. Noya, I'm strong and my love is strong. Everything will be okay. I'll save you…Be strong…” The terrorists also abducted Gilat’s 80-year-old mother Carmella Dan, as well as her sister’s children, Erez (12) and Sahar (16) and their father, Ofer Kalderon (50). - Chris Steyn

Former Springbok Captain Wynand Claassen has mauled the South African government for its sluggishness in updating anti-doping regulations. This blunder could've had the Proteas and Springboks playing without their national flag. In a candid interview with BizNews, Claassen is incredulous that the Department of Culture and Sport allowed two international competitions to proceed without sorting out these crucial regulations. He doesn't hold back on SA and World Rugby Boards either, slamming the Springboks' "Chappie" kit worn during the Rugby World Cup. Following an open letter to World Rugby, Claassen and his "partner-in-crime," former Bok captain Tommy Bedford, launched a blistering attack on the so-called "Gin and Tonic Board Room Brigade." Claassen asserts that World Rugby administrators live differently from professional rugby's gritty reality. The maze of rules they have introduced drives fans and aspiring rugby stars away from the sport. For the sport's excessive yellow and red cards, he offers a bold alternative to reduce head clashes and make the game safer for players. Claassen also calls on ex-players and seasoned captains who genuinely grasp the game to have a louder voice in shaping its future. Regarding his ongoing battle to declare Newlands Stadium in Cape Town a heritage site, he is not backing off, much like he did during his rugby-playing days as an indomitable eighth-man

KwaZulu-Natal is also known as “The Killing Fields” of South Africa. That is because of the high number of political murders in that province where scores of councillors and officials have been murdered. BizNews speaks to Arise SA President Mpho Dagada, who has just been there to investigate. He describes how councillors trying to protect municipalities are targeted and killed if they try and stop contracts being awarded to criminal syndicates; and how people go into municipal offices with guns to order the transfer of funds. The majority of the councillors murdered are from the African National Congress (ANC). Dagada says that is because there is a “culture of criminality” in the ruling party. Dagada calls on business- and community leaders to join the fight for “the soul of our country”.

In this episode of UNDICTATED, independent political and economic analyst Dr Frans Cronje tackles two topical subjects with BizNews editor Alec Hogg - massive voter shifts in KZN and the ANC’s monumental foreign affairs blunder. Cronje, who heads the Social Research Foundation, shares the latest research on voters in South Africa’s most populous province, where the country’s ruling party is in a downward spiral. And then moves onto the ANC’s public support for Hamas after its terrorists murdered hundreds of Israeli civilians - condemning Pretoria’s stated position as siding with barbarism and urging a rapid recant.

For the past two years, the world has watched with alarm as Ukraine faced a brutal invasion by Russia. The conflict had a profound effect on the global economy, with rising energy prices and consumers feeling the pinch. However, the Ukraine crisis has been suddenly eclipsed by another flashpoint in the Middle East: the violent escalation between Israel and Hamas. In an interview with Biznews, political analyst at the University of Johannesburg, Professor Theo Venter, says the Israel-Hamas conflict has now become the World’s Number One Crisis. Prof Venter says that the Hamas attack was an intelligence failure and that Israel is likely to retaliate with a “20-pound hammer,” which could lead to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. In an interview with Biznews, he said that we will all be impacted again like the Ukraine conflict did, with oil prices, the dollar, the pound, and the South African rand becoming more volatile while the price of gold and oil will increase. Prof Venter also gave his prediction of the outcome of the 2024 elections in South Africa. He suggests that despite consistently polling below 50% of support, the ANC is likely to retain power. Venter also predicts that the Multi-Party Charter will get “deep in the 30s” in the 2024 elections. Rapid urbanisation with more voters aware of the effects of load shedding and infrastructure collapse in the country will be two most important game changer, he says. - Linda van Tilburg

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has been urged to immediately sack his “darling”, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan. That call is being made by Ghaleb Cachalia, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises. “In the private sector, if that was your responsibility, they would be holding your feet to the fire to say, deliver or go. And as he hasn't delivered, they would show him the door.” However, Cachalia is not hopeful that the president will heed his call “…because he is the darling, if you like, the chief supporter of President Ramaphosa, there seems to be a lot of slack that's cut for him.” Cachalia describes Gordhan as “a dutiful and faithful acolyte of the president”, and fears that the government will “let him run with some face-saving” until his term ends. However, he warns: “But his face will be saved while the country’s will be destroyed. That is the tragedy. And unless the president hears that - and acts on that, then the president is also culpable.” - Chris Steyn

Two years into the R1m challenge to settle which is better, JSE or global investing, the performances of protagonists Piet Viljoen and Magnus Heystek have significantly narrowed. Following a flying start, Piet’s “Local is Lekker” portfolio has stalled, with Magnus’s offshore-focused investments clawing back after a horrific first few months. In this half-yearly recap on the Challenge, there’s a surprising amount of agreement between them - including a shared warning of how marketers of financial services promote finite-time concepts whose results are bad for investors. They spoke to Alec Hogg of BizNews.

Tshwane’s Executive Mayor, Cilliers Brink, may represent the most rational hope for reversing South Africa’s prolonged decline into poverty. Brink’s leadership in confronting organized labour epitomises the country's challenges in the coming years. After decades of ANC compliance and regular capitulation to increasingly unsustainable demands of trade unions, Tshwane’s DA-led coalition refused to approve a R600 million wage increase to avoid further strain on an already R3 billion under-funded budget. The illegal strikers, constituting only 10% of the Metro’s workforce, have resorted to criminal violence, setting a precedent that could become a test case for the entire nation. In this episode of UNDICTATED, Brink discussed the situation with Alec Hogg, the editor of BizNews.

Has South Africa’s State Security Agency (SSA) been hacked? And did the new Head of Crime Intelligence get his Security Clearance in just five days? These are big issues for the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) Dianne Kohler-Barnard who sits on the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence. But she tells BizNews that meetings of the last two committees of the last term were cancelled, and now meetings of the committees for this week have also “just been summarily cancelled”. She fumes: “…we have these two major issues, two major, major issues. And last term, we didn't finish the term, and this term, we haven't even started the term…What on earth is going on? Frankly, your guess is as good as mine.” - Chris Steyn

South Africa’s capital city, Tshwane, has been gripped by violence amid ongoing strike action by some municipal workers over a 0% salary increase. Community Safety MMC Grandi Theunissen of the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) tells BizNews that there have been cases of attempted murder, torching of vehicles, arson, stone-throwing, tyre-slashing, and intimidation.  He says it has gone “beyond” a normal labour protest and turned into “a violent, orchestrated criminal onslaught against the City and the people of the City as well as co-workers”. Theunissen charges that the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have played a “disruptive” role - and are even “participating in criminal activities”. On how close Tshwane is to collapse, he says:  “…if we are allowed to work on our recovery plan and our funding plan, then I see that we can survive. If we are going to be forced into something that we do not want to do, there is a chance that this is going to happen.” On a positive note, seven new senior managers have been appointed, two of whom have already started work.