A week long wage strike by over four-thousand UNISA workers at the institutions seven regional campuses across the country continues amid talks between management and the unions. Prospective students have been advised by the university to apply and register online amid the on-going strike by the university staff. Workers mostly members of NEHAWU and Association for Professional Workers Union of South Africa are demanding 9-percent salary increase while the university is offering 6%...

Guest: Unisa spokesperson, Dr Lusani Netshitomboni

Cosatu has proposed paying off Eskom's debt by using private pensions from the Public Investment Corporation, PIC. The Union made its proposals at a meeting with senior members of the ANC earlier this month. The DA have rejected the proposal saying it would result in billions of rand in state employee pension funds being redirected to bail out a collapsing and defunct Eskom. So is this an economically sound Idea? To answer this we are joined on the line by Dr Azar Jammine, Director and Chief Economist at Econometrix…

Guest: Dr Azar Jammine, Director and Chief Economist at Econometrix

What’s up with these white butterflies that have been fluttering across South Africa? Since yesterday, white butterflies have been seen in Gauteng fluttering through the streets. These butterflies are known as the Brown-Veined White Butterfly and their annual migration takes place during mid-summer each year, which takes place at the end of January.

Guest: Christelle Cilliers, Manager @ The Butterfly Valley Farm in KZN

The SAPS in partnership with Facebook have launched an ‘Amber Alert’ tool for South Africa. An Amber Alert is a missing child emergency alert which works by distributing a message through a system that will enable the Facebook community to actively participate in finding missing children.

Guest: Brigadier Attie Lamprecht, Section Head for the National Bureau for Missing Persons at the SAPS

We hear from Alf Lees about why the Democratic Alliance is not entirely convinced about the DBSA and SAA cash injection deal. The party says it will be writing to the Minister of Trade and Industry Ibrahim Patel about the deal as they are suspecting that the DBSA could possibly be shifting money meant for meaningful development projects that could create employment.

Guest: Alf Lees, DA MP

Did you know that as many as one in five new mothers will experience depression just before or after giving birth? Apparently, there is a growing scientific evidence of the safety of antidepressants in pregnancy and that stopping medication may in fact cause more harm to both mother and baby.

Guest: Dr Bavi Vythilingum, Specialist psychiatrist and member of the South African Society of Psychiatrists

Mangaung metro municipality has been downgraded further by the rating agency Moody's. This after municipality was downgraded last year in August. Moody's stated poor governance and management practices as the cause of the downgrade. According to Moody's Mangaung has missed debt service payments on two loans worth more than fifty million rand combined.

Guest: Karen Heese, an economist at Municipal IQ, which specialises in local government data

Higher Education Minister, Blade Nzimande says there is no need for the national shutdown at different higher learning institutions. The shutdown follows a breakdown in talks between the department, the South African Union of Students - SAUS, Student Representative Council (SRC) presidents and secretary-generals of South African public universities. Nzimande says a decision was taken to allow returning students who are funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), to register at institutions despite owing fees.

Guest: Ishmael Mnisi, spokesperson for Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande

Dr Mark Lutter, who is the founder and executive director of the Charter Cities Institute joins us to discuss the objectives of the upcoming inaugural Charter Cities Conference which is due to take place in March this year. The Charter Cities Institute has already embarked on a journey to develop partnerships with governments around the world to making Charter Cities a reality. Charter Cities Institute’s goal is to help alleviate global poverty by playing a critical role in the establishment of dozens of charter cities, new cities with special jurisdiction that allows them to adopt more competitive business practices worldwide.

Guest: Dr. Mark Lutter is Founder and Executive Director of the Charter Cities Institute, a non-profit organisation creating the ecosystem for charter cities

Tomorrow, the Institute of Race Relations will be delivering to Parliament the names of over 200 000 South Africans who oppose expropriation of land without compensation. The institute says government must be aware that there is a groundswell of opposition to the policy of Expropriation Without Compensation.

Guest: Hermann Pretorius, Campaigns Manager at the Institute of Race Relations