Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga has acknowledged that since the Grade seven and 12 learners went back to school last month - there have been some unfortunate instances where learners, teachers and non-teaching staff have died of Covid-19 related illnesses. Eleven teachers, four non-teaching staff and three learners have died as a result of Covid-19. Motshekga was conducting an online media briefing from Pretoria. Grades six an11 learners will be going to school from today (Monday). So far there has been mixed reaction with some unions saying the schools are not ready. Let’s hear what the minister had to say yesterday…

CLIP-ANGIE

Guest: Allen Thompson – President of the National Teachers' Union (Not happy with extra grades being added.)

So many of us are feeling down and worried about developments taking place around us. People are losing jobs while the Covid-19 cases continue to rise. Politicians on the other hand are not making the situation better. How then are we expected to remain positive and hopeful? How does one channel your mind to see things differently? Well let’s pose this question to someone who deals with this subject on a daily bases. Not only a fitness guru, but also has the ability to make you want to jump out of bed and do something…

Guest: Warrior Ric (AK Ricardo Gressel) - Motivational speaker, and facilitator helping individuals and companies embrace change

So many people these days are buying gadgets for their children and all of them have their own reasons why they do that. Children then use these gadgets to access the internet. The scary thing is that 39% of South African parents don’t have an idea of their children are doing on the net. This is according to a Responsible Digital Parenting survey.

Guest: Andrey Sidenko – Lead web content analyst at Kaspersky

The Media24 Book Awards has been criticized severely for a lack of diversity. This after 2020 awards went to white authors. The breakdown is that the awards went to six white males and one white female. The 18 judges were made up of only two blacks. Why are we seeing this still 26 years into our democracy?

Guest: Fred Khumalo – Journalist and judge at the 2020 Media24 Book Awards

Guest: Pauli van Wyk - Journalist at Daily Maverick's Scorpio unit

Guest: Abdul Mogale – Treasurer at National Writers Association of South Africa

LINK: Let’s speak now to someone who has also recovered to get an understanding of what it’s like to go through such an experience. Her name is Morongwa Mokwena, someone who is said to be health conscious and exercises regularly. She is based at the SABC’s Cape Town office….

Guest: Morongwa Mokwena – SABC TV News Archivist based in Cape Town

As you’ve hear about the appointment of Nuclear physicist Professor Zeblon Vilakazi to the position of vice-chancellor and principal of Wits University with effect from January 1 2021, we thought to invite him for a chat on his appointment and the direction he will be steering the institution into. He is taking over from Prof Adam Habib who is leaving the university to head the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Prof Vilakazi takes over the position at a time where universities are in the news for all the wrong reasons….
Guest: Professor Zeblon Vilakazi – Newly appointed vice-chancellor and principal of Wits University

Often when we hear about retrenchments and the unemployment stats, we look at the issue as a number and never put a face to it. Well this morning we hear directly from an affected employee about what it’s like to lose your job and the kind of mental battle one has to deal with

Guest: Kgalalelo – SAA employee

The township economy is often mentioned in political speeches during election time. Politicians talk so much about improving township economy with no real results. Well let’s talk now about an initiative by the Youth Employment Service called Masks4All. It is sold as a way that could show the way for township businesses to improve their quality and competitiveness to the point that they can tap not only into local corporate markets but more significantly, export markets. To tell explain how it works and the kind of assistance they give to these business, we are joined on the line by…

Guest: Dr Tashmia Ismail-Saville - CEO of the Youth Employment Service

Yesterday the ANC’s Secretary-General Ace Magashule announced that the ANC is supporting the call to merge the country's national, provincial and local government elections. He was briefing the media on the outcomes of the NEC meeting held over the weekend. Magashule says that they will be engaging other parties on the issue. Let’s listen to what he had to say….

Guest: Terry Tselane - Executive Chairperson at the Institute of Election Management Services in Africa (He will speak more as a former IEC official about the practicality – We can do him for 5/10 minutes and release him)

Guest: Lulu White - Lulu White Election Management Consulting Agency of Africa (She will take it more on both practicalities and politics)

Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu has blamed municipalities’ failure to adhere to prescribed regulations for the increase in irregular and wasteful spending to 32 billion rand in the 2018/2019 financial year. This as an increase of 7-billion rand from the previous financial year. Only 20 of the country's 257 municipalities received clean audits, most of them in the Western Cape and Gauteng. Apart from the 32 billion rand in fruitless and wasteful expenditure, unauthorised spending exceeding the agreed budgets amounted to 11-point-nine-billion rand. Makwetu released his report in a virtual media briefing. To give us more insights into his report, Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu now joins us on the line..

Guest: Kimi Makwetu - Auditor-General