It's rough out there in the trenches, so be kind, to others and yourself, drink that nicely matured vintage if you want and keep your chin up. This is the week that was with Simon Brown and Giulietta Talevi

The Competition Commission has unveiled the long-awaited provisional findings of its Health Market Inquiry and has pointed the finger at Medical schemes and hospital groups distorting competition and driving costs up. Professor Sharon Fonn, Panel Member of the Health Market Inquiry joined Business Day TV to discuss some of the findings and recommendations they're putting forward.

"Mining Affected Communities United in Action" represents around 200 communities in all nine provinces and the communities have outright rejected the revised mining charter - saying that consultation with them was a mere "rubber stamping". Further to that, MACUA is threatening court action - once again - if substantive issues are not addressed. Meshack Mbangula, National Convenor of MACUA joined Business Day TV to flesh out some of the detail on where their gripe sits as we near the end of the 30-day period for public comment on the policy.

Royal Bafokeng Platinum is set to purchase Amplats' subsidiary - Rustenburg Platinum Mines' - 33% stake in Bafokeng Rasimone mine - at a R1.86 billion price tag. But the deal will still allow Amplats access to the mines production, at a cost of course. So to go through the rationale behind the deal struck and what this means for its operation moving forward is Royal Bafokeng Platinum's CFO ,Martin Prinsloo.

Thousands of pensioners have been unable to withdraw their social grant money using the new Sassa cards and although Sassa hoped to resolve the glitches by Monday, the problem is expected to continue over the next few days. The South African Post Office which has taken over payments from Net1's CPS has accused Net 1 of interfering with the card swaps but what is actually going on and who is to blame? Sassa National Spokesperson, Kgomoco Diseko joined Business Day TV for more.

Power utility, Eskom has secured 23% of its funding needs in the new financial year but that's only 22%, Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan and National Treasury recently basically went cap in hand to banks and asset managers for help to nurse SOEs back to health. Cash-strapped Eskom's debt sits at over R300 billion but the utility has some plans in place to cut debt. Khulu Phasiwe, Spokesperson for Eskom joined Business Day TV to discuss what some of those plans are.

Silvertree Internet Holdings is the SA-based owner of online platforms like CarZar, Ucook, Faithful to Nature and PriceCheck - and its looking to add more companies to its portfolio ahead of its planned listing even if it is 5 years out. It's targeting annual revenue growth of more than R4.1bn by 2023 as well and MD Manuel Koser joined Business Day TV on the line with more insight into the company and how exactly it's readying itself.

We have entered the second half of the year, in the first quarter our GDP contracted by 2.2% marking the biggest decline in 9-years, inflation is hovering close to the Sarb's target range with the climbing oil prices remaining a risk to the CPI outlook, the rand is flirting with R14 levels against the dollar and the 2019 election is around the corner while state capture and other inquiries into corruption takes center stage. Amidst it all, we were able to avoid junk status in the first quarter, all data points are clear that Ramaphoria is no more, where is the South African economy headed? Iraj Abedian, Economist and CEO of Pan African Investments and Research Services joined us on the line for more.

Some call the World Cup the biggest gambling event in history with billions exchanging hands in different currencies on the possible outcomes and with the only one spot left in the quarter finals up for grabs tonight, who are you betting on and what do the odds suggest? Paddy Power from Paddy Power Betfair joined us on the line for more on the trends they're seeing.

Mineral Resources Minister, Gwede Mantashe has published a notice restricting applications for oil and gas exploration and development, this as his department makes changes to its licensing process - a move that is seen as pumping more uncertainty into the sector which is in need of much needed growth as it holds the key to the country's energy security challenges. Lindiwe Mekwe, Acting CEO of the Petroleum Agency SA joined us on the line to discuss the spillover effects of the Minister's latest move.