The Department of Social Development is today (Wed) and tomorrow (Thursday) holding a teenage pregnancy stakeholder engagement in KZN. This is one of the provinces with the high prevalence of teenage pregnancy in the country. We use this opportunity now to look at how we can better deal with this problem and what are the underlying factors that we could attribute this problem to? To help us navigate this issue, we are joined on the line by…   

Guest: Phinah Kodisang – CEO of Soul City Institute

guest: LUMKA OLIPHANT – SPOKESPERSON FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

The Competition Commission says that it has referred Facebook owner Meta Platforms to a tribunal for allegedly abusing its dominance in the market. On Monday, the regulator accused Meta of "abusing its dominance by engaging in exclusionary conduct geared at preventing competitors or potential competitors from entering into, participating, and expanding in a market.

Guest: Eldrid Jordaan - CEO of GovChat

This morning our Municipal Watch feature with speak to the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs about the state of municipalities and the role they play in helping them not to collapse. As far as they are concerned, where does the problem lie and how can municipalities self-sustain? Where does Cogta come in especially where the situation is dire like in some of the provinces? What are their concerns seeing how communities take to the streets in protest of service delivery? To get their perspective, we are joined on the line by… 

Guest: Thembi Simelane-Nkadimeng - Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta)

With the cost of living rising enormously, Bryan is this morning again discussing the importance of drawing up a budget and how you go about doing this….

Guest: Bryan Hirsch, Chairperson of Bryan Hirsch, Colley & Associates (Pty) Limited

Yesterday towards the end of the show we received a call from a caller by the name Mpho from Soweto who spoke about how SCD is built around racial lines and not really uplifting entrepreneurs. Let’s take a listen to what he had to say….

Guest: Rakgadi Motseto – Chief Director: Stakeholders and Clients Management at National Treasury

Abahlali Basemjondolo say that they believe that their members are deliberately being targeted. This follows the death of one of their leaders Ayanda Ngila at the eKhenana commune in KwaZulu-Natal last week. They go on to say that they have lost six members in eKhenana to targeted assassinations. To tell us more and what they suspect is going on and who may be targeting them, we are joined on the line by…

Guest: Sbu Zikode – President of Abahlali Basemjondolo

In week two of our series of interviews with Treasury that aims to simplify the concept of procurement. Today we look at the drop in compliance by service providers, especially on tax and banking accounts. Also the misalignment to what is registered for on the CSD and where government is heading towards building the economy and ensuring that we manufacture locally. To discuss this further, we are joined on the line by…

Guest: Rakgadi Motseto – Chief Director: Stakeholders and Clients Management at National Treasury

Professor Saths Cooper penned an article over the weekend highlighting the racist element in the Russian/Ukrainian war that is currently playing out. He is bringing in the role of the UN, racism shown against the black students who were fleeing the war to safety and the attitude of the world towards human rights violations. He goes on to argue that the unjust colonial system in operation at the UN should be dismantled and a more inclusive order should be established when human suffering is deemed unacceptable. He now joins us on the line to share his thoughts….  

Guest: Professor Saths Cooper - President of the Pan-African Psychology Union

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues around the world, more than 130 former world leaders, Nobel laureates and other international voices are calling for urgent action to vaccinate low and middle-income countries.  In a letter coordinated by the People’s Vaccine Alliance, these leaders say that they would like to see an end to the pandemic. They are also calling for profits to be put aside and the monopolisation of the vaccines. To tell us more on this, we are joined on the line by….

Guest: Anna Marriott, policy lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance

Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says three ministers, himself, the minister in the presidency and the public enterprise minister are having sleepless nights due to load shedding in the country. He says his ministry needs to work with independent power producers in order to try and address the power outage problem. Looking at how far back we come with the problem of load-shedding, what are the practical solutions to end this problem and is the minister correct in pointing to independent producers as a solution? For a perspective on this, we are joined on the line by….

Guest:  Lungile Mashele - Independent energy economist