Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit

India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her seventh straight budget and promised increased support for the poor, women, youth, and farmers; India’s supreme court issues order against religious discrimination; Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an official visit to Russia earlier this month at the same time that NATO held a summit. Lester Kiewit gets details on these stories from Prof. Dilip Menon.

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Lester Kiewit speaks to Imtiaz Cajee, the nephew of Ahmed Timol, who was murdered by apartheid era police. They discuss the need for justice for victims of crimes committed before the dawn of democracy in South Africa.

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The flooding of roads around Cape Town has resulted in increased traffic congestion and tailbacks. Why is the effect so pronounced when just one lane is closed off while others remain open? Lester Kiewit gets an explanation from Professor Johann Andersen, Professor of Civil Engineering at Stellenbosch University.

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US President Joe Biden addresses nation from Oval Office, explaining his decision to bow out from election race; a surfer’s leg washes up on beach after shark attack; a Russian chef arrested in Paris over alleged ‘large scale’ Olympic Games plot. Adam Gilchrist shares details on all these stories with Lester Kiewit.

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Roads around Cape Town have become more congested due to some sections being flooded as a result of the heavier than usual rains. Lester Kiewit speaks to Tertius Simmers, Western Cape MEC for Infrastructure, to find out how work is progressing on clearing the flooded areas.

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Lester Kiewit is joined by Brett Herron, Secretary-General of the GOOD party, to discuss the legal and ethical issues surrounding Cape Town's municipal debt collection through prepaid electricity meters. They examine how this practice affects residents' access to basic services, the fairness of automatic debt deductions, and the disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations.

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Thanks to social media platforms blocking content which might be considered “problematic”, users have come up with workarounds in the form of new words and phrases which aren’t on a “watchlist”. These new words and phrases have not only come into frequent use, but their usage has also evolved. Lester Kiewit and Kirsty Bisset, MD of HaveYouHeard Marketing have some fun discussing some of them. 

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South Africa is not a nation typically known for basketball, but there are signs that the sport is picking up steam. Samkelo Cele was born in Durban and started playing basketball at school, receiving a basketball scholarship at Durban High School. He then got to play College basketball in the USA and signed his first professional contract with Cape Town Tigers in 2023 for the Basketball Africa League. He has now been signed up by the New York Knicks for the summer league and spoke to Lester Kiewit from Los Angeles, where he has been spending the past few days.

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Should there be a sense of dishonour in having an informal settlement named after you? While there are many informal settlements named after notable world and national events, there are also those which are named after government leaders, including those currently in office. Lester Kiewit speaks to Associate Professor Divine Fuh Director of HUMA- Institute for Humanities in Africa, in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Cape Town, and Associate Professor of social anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at UCT.

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For the first time, a link has been established between long-term antiretroviral treatment and premature births. Lester Kiewit speaks to Professor Clive Gray, Professor of Immunology in Molecular Biology and Human Genetics at Stellenbosch University, whose research group has identified a molecule in the placenta that is responsible for poor placental blood vessel formation and potentially related to heart problems in the mother. Professor Gray also recently received the prestigious Oppenheimer Memorial Trust's “Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award” for his pioneering work.

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