Sunday Times Politics Weekly

Former Botswana leader Ian Khama has called on the country’s new president, Duma Boko, to launch an investigation into the ousted Mokgweetsi Masisi’s use of government finances during his period in power. Khama says he feels responsible for the 'dictatorship' that ensued after Masisi took power.

The former president was in conversation with Sunday Times politics reporter, Kgothatso Madisa.

Prof Susan Booysen says the government of national unity (GNU) is a coalition with the DA but the ANC invited other parties to avoid political trouble.

The Wits emeritus professor and independent research consultant explored the survival prospects of the GNU and the changed terrain in which all political parties are having to find their way. She joined Sunday Times deputy editor Mike Siluma on the Sunday Times Politics Weekly podcast.

Former public protector Thuli Madonsela believes white racists should be helped to heal so they don’t wound others.

She joined Sunday Times deputy editor Mike Siluma in conversation after she set the cat among the pigeons with a post on her X account suggesting race supremacists need to be helped to heal from their post-transformation trauma.

Madonsela said supremacists need to accept they are not superior to others.

“It's not always just about race though, it's [also] about gender. Anybody who was raised in that just because they look a particular way they deserve more than others in a society based on human rights, social justice and acceptance of equality of all human beings, to them it feels like a loss of a right as opposed to loss of an unmerited privilege.”

White people should not teach black people to deal with their trauma as they would make wrong assumptions. “White people should help other white people to understand that the ‘loss’ is not really a loss as such but changed expectations.”

The topic harms white and black people, said Madonsela. “For everyone’s sake, in the same way that when it comes to gender we say we need to do ‘man work’, we have to do white work and white people have to do white work."

Just a week after President Cyril Ramaphosa reassured the country he intended to serve a full term in office, ANC Limpopo provincial secretary Reuben Madadzhe has come out in support of his continued presidency.

The ANC Youth League secretary-general has warned South Africa is on the brink of a revolution that will see young people rise up against white South Africans if the economy continues to be in the red.Mntuwoxolo Ngudle spoke to TimesLIVE Premium on the state of the economy, accusing the private sector of “treason” for failing to transform the economy.

At the age of just 32 and with a possibly illustrious political career ahead of him, acting ANC national spokesperson Zuko Godlimpi admits that the prospect of inheriting a dying party keeps him up at night.

A few months ago Eskom was the black sheep of public opinion, but last month we reported that the utility recorded its highest energy generation levels in six years.

It’s not out of the woods yet — chairperson Mteto Nyati says they will execute remaining aspects of Eskom’s recovery plan.

Nyati shares the formula they used to rescue Eskom from the brink of collapse.

Two years ago the president roped him in to help save the power utility. Nyati speaks about the plans they implemented to get to where there is no load-shedding for at least 160 consecutive days, the longest period in a while. He, however, is reluctant to say load-shedding has ended.

Load-shedding reached its peak in 2022 and last year to beginning of this year.

The utility regularly receives financial bailouts from government. Nyati says that will soon end because Eskom will stand on its own feet.

“We are saving from last year. Already in this financial year which start[ed] on 1st of April we have saved R10bn on last year.”

He talks to our digital politics editor, Lizeka Tandwa, in this episode of the Sunday Times Politics Weekly about the criticality of the leadership change in the company, which included appointing Dan Marokane as CEO and the importance of the executives’ relationship with him.

Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi outlines promising economic plans that will “break the backbone of unemployment” like expanding the Gautrain for residents and plans the government of provincial unity has to make Gauteng a world-class province.

Lesufi warns that the ANC is a “sinking ship” and speaks on the government of national unity. 

He exclusively speaks to Sunday Times political journalist Kgothatso Madisa a day after he delivered his state of the province address. Lesufi says “we can’t have everyone coming here [Gauteng]”.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has launched a disciplinary process against three senior party leaders implicated in the Zondo state capture report: Malusi Gigaba, David Mahlobo and Cedric Frolick.

After the formation of the government of national unity, the DA has emerged as an important player in the alliance. The party's federal chairperson Helen Zille opens up on the Sunday Times Politics Weekly podcast about the considerations of the architecture of the GNU and her relationship with some of the ANC's top executives. She also speaks about issues such as racism, service delivery, the economy and crime.

Zille, 73, a former journalist at the Rand Daily Mail who exposed the apartheid police cover-up of Chris Hani’s assassination, also opens up about how she transitioned from journalism to politics.

Besides being a wife, she is a mother and a grandmother. She talks about how politics has affected her life.

Production by: Bulelani Nonyukela.