It was all meant to get under way in Pretoria in the new week, but the Madlanga inquiry has been delayed, seemingly due to factors out of its control. We’ve since heard from Minister Mmamaloko Kubayi that she’s suspended her department’s director-general, advocate Doc Mashabane, and his deputy, Jabu Hlatshwayo, for failing to ensure the commission had adequate information and communication technology infrastructure set up in time. This inquiry, chaired by the now-retired acting Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, has already indicated it’s been in contact with one of its chief witnesses, KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. He publicly alleged that the heart of the South African Police Service has been captured by politically connected criminal figures. The Lead picked out the best bits of an expert panel discussing the delays with star specialist legal journalist Karyn Maughan, political analyst, media columnist and fellow author Mpumelelo Mkhabela, as well as renowned criminologist and political scientist, currently based at Stellenbosch University, Dr Guy Lamb. The panel agrees: the delayed inquiry must begin soonest to help restore Mzansi’s trust in law enforcement. Finally, we end with ‘On This Day in History’.

State-owned arms manufacturer Denel, known for developing world-renowned defence weaponry, including the Casspir armoured vehicle and the Rooivalk attack helicopter, has been battling to stay financially afloat in recent years, despite government bailouts. And now a jet deal it struck with a US firm has seemingly soured, too. Bringing The Lead this exclusive story today is business journalist Jan Cronje. Cronje details how Denel’s 2017 contract was to sell Draken International 12 jets, but according to Draken’s court papers, it only received three jets, two of which apparently didn’t have ejector seats! Later in the show, a kidnapped Gqeberha woman is safely reunited with her family. Also, celebrated thespian Dr John Kani now has the honour of handing out Oscars. Finally, The Lead pauses to remember the late great broadcaster and political journalist, Tshidi Madia. You can send host Graeme Raubenheimer a voice note with your questions or thoughts on this episode to: +27 72 562 3179. Mail your comments to: [email protected]. Editions drop Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

It’s a fairly obscure government agency, but with a big budget. And now a News24 investigation led by journalist Sikonathi Mantshantsha has spurred the finance minister to appoint a new acting CEO at the state pensions administration agency. This follows evidence uncovered of irregular contracts, including a ghost building lease and ICT deals to the tune of R1.6 billion, and staff targeted for speaking out against the alleged graft. Later in the show, no new date’s been set yet for the Madlanga commission of inquiry into SA policing, but a top Justice director-general has been suspended for the delays .Finally, Mzansi’s crowned a new boerewors champ, and he’s a car salesman from Paarl! You can send host Graeme Raubenheimer a voice note with your questions or thoughts on this episode to: +27 72 562 3179. Mail your comments to: [email protected]. Editions drop Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube. 

It has been under national administration. And yet the financial books for the metro council in charge of Bloemfontein, Mangaung, remain firmly in the red. In short, the City’s liabilities exceed its assets. News24 investigative journalist Sipho Masondo reports to The Lead that the troubled council has allowed a culture of staff excessively billing for overtime. Even if said staffer is in prison! Meanwhile, there’s been headline after headline about the severe lack of basic services, such as waste removal. Later in the show, cellphone records show that former police minister Bheki Cele frantically tried to get hold of Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala one night. Finally, the all-star Boks team to take on our rivals, the All Blacks, next month has been announced. Hear who made the cut! You can send host Graeme Raubenheimer a voice note with your questions or thoughts on this episode to: +27 72 562 3179. Mail your comments to: [email protected]. Editions drop Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

Some US lawmakers remain relentless in drafting new legislation that seeks to punish South Africa on a range of policy fronts, going further than the measures already brought by the second Trump administration. The latest Bilateral Relations Review Bill, sponsored by a Texas Republican congressman, Ronny Jackson, will need plenty of support to make it past both legislative houses in the States, however. One of Jackson’s bill’s biggest advocates is the Hudson Institute’s Joshua Meservey, whom our specialist News24 journalist, Carol Paton, spoke to. Paton reports what she’s hearing from Meservey and others in Washington to The Lead in this Thursday edition. Finally, host Graeme Raubenheimer ends with “On This Day in SA History”, our new daily show segment. You can send host Graeme Raubenheimer a short voice note with your questions or thoughts on this episode to our official The Lead WhatsApp line, that’s: +27 72 562 3179. Mail your comments to [email protected]. Editions drop on Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

This Saturday, 23 August 2025, marks exactly four years to the day since Babita Deokaran, a single mother, was murdered. Gunned down in a hail of bullets fired from the firearms of hired hitmen, what we didn’t know at the time was that the Gauteng health department’s chief accountant had just recently internally flagged and frozen some R100 million in payments emanating from Tembisa Hospital. Soon, News24’s intrepid investigative journalist, Jeff Wicks, would uncover, with access to Babita’s massive email database, how the overcrowded Gauteng East Rand health facility was transformed into a giant state fund feeding ground for the province’s politically connected criminal underworld. Today, Wicks wonders: Did Babita die in vain? The two-time Taco Kuiper award-winning investigative journalist is joined in this special panel discussion on The Lead by SAA corruption whistleblower Cynthia Stimpel, and OUTA CEO Wayne Duvenage. Stimpel suggests: shouldn’t 23 August be SA’s new day honouring whistleblowers? You can send host Graeme Raubenheimer a short voice note with your questions or thoughts: +27 72 562 3179. Editions drop on Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

It’s a critical position in the now crumbling City of Johannesburg: a mayoral committee member for group corporate and shared services. It may sound a bit vague. But in this seat, you’re responsible for finance management, the city’s IT infrastructure, and supply chain processes. And it’s now occupied by one, Mr Sithembiso Zungu. He’s an ANC politician who has anything but quietly climbed the political ranks, as allegations of his running of a local construction cartel have followed him for years, enough to attract a Hawks investigation. Zungu may well be Mzansi’s dirtiest politician, argues News24 editor-in-chief, Adriaan Basson, who joins us in Tuesday’s edition of The Lead. Finally, show host Graeme Raubenheimer ends with a new segment: “On This Day in History”, courtesy SA History Online. You can send Graeme a short voice note with your questions or thoughts on this episode to our official The Lead WhatsApp line, that’s: +27 72 562 3179. Mail your comments to [email protected]. Editions drop on Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

A new report, put out by a research centre at Stellenbosch University, has now exposed a Poland-based news group called Visegrád24 for amplifying the views of alt-right commentators and their false narratives and mistruths about what’s happening in South Africa today. The report, authored by the university’s Centre for Information Integrity in Africa, has also drawn links between Visegrád24 and Polish government funding, while allegedly enjoying US tax-exempt status. The man at the centre of its operations is founder Stefan Tompson, who has brushed shoulders with local political YouTuber Willem Petzer and Sebastiaan Jooste, the man behind “Twatterbaas”. To shed more detail on the university’s report in this edition of The Lead is our News24 Disinformation Desk editor, Andrew Thompson. Later in the show, News24’s multimedia team ventures down a zama-zama’s mine shaft. Finally, The Lead is “skibidi” enough to end off revealing Cambridge Dictionary’s new words.You can send show host Graeme Raubenheimer a short voice note with your questions or thoughts on this episode to our official The Lead WhatsApp line, that’s: +27 72 562 3179. Mail your comments to [email protected]. Editions drop on Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

It seems like anyone can become South Africa’s foreign policy spokesperson these days. Just ask the chief of our defence force. South African National Defence Force chief General Rudzani Maphwanya jetted off to Tehran this week to meet with his Iranian counterpart and, quite astonishingly, spoke like the country’s foreign minister. And now our actual international relations minister, Ronald Lamola, back home, is scrambling to clean up after the general’s mess. Maphwanya’s timing couldn’t have been worse as Pretoria tries to salvage ties with Washington whose missiles just recently struck Tehran’s nuclear sites. The Lead host Graeme Raubenheimer and investigations editor Pieter du Toit are left wondering how or why this trip happened at all. Later in the show, we end off with ‘On This Day in History’. You can send show host Graeme Raubenheimer a short voice note with your questions or thoughts on this episode to our official The Lead WhatsApp line, that’s: +27 72 562 3179. Mail your comments to [email protected]. Editions drop on Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

R1.47bn. This is how much the government has spent on protecting its VIPs from the 2020/21 financial year to date. And it’s not even the full picture of the cost. It’s especially mind-boggling, given that around R2.3bn has been set aside just this year alone to keep VIPs safe. To make sense of the numbers for The Lead, we’re joined in our Cape Town studio by our senior parliamentary journalist, Jan Gerber. Later in the show, the DA is finalising its replacement for the deputy trade minister in the GNU. And finally, The Stormers unveil their new look! You can send show host Graeme Raubenheimer a short voice note with your questions or thoughts on this episode to our official The Lead WhatsApp line, that’s: +27 72 562 3179. Mail your comments to [email protected]. Editions drop on Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.