With South Africans experiencing economic hardships due to rocketing fuel prices and high electricity tariffs, President Cyril Ramaphosa says the country will only give support to Zimbabwe within its means. He was speaking at the opening session of the third South Africa-Zimbabwe Bi-National Commission underway in the capital Harare. Zimbabwe is in dire economic situation following targeted sanctions buy the EU and the United States.

Guest: Ntebo Mokobo,SABC reporter

The DTI has been running the furniture design competition, in partnership with SABS Design Institute, Proudly SA, the IDC, Solidworks, Seating Pty Ltd and Furntech. The winners will be announced at this 2019 Buy Local Summit, and the new leg of the competition (2019/20) will also be launched. The design competition is aimed at contributing to the development of the design skills in the sector, and will complement the development of a design course and design workshops.

Guest: : Jody Scholtz – Group COO at DTI

The DTI has been running the furniture design competition, in partnership with SABS Design Institute, Proudly SA, the IDC, Solidworks, Seating Pty Ltd and Furntech. The winners will be announced at this 2019 Buy Local Summit, and the new leg of the competition (2019/20) will also be launched. The design competition is aimed at contributing to the development of the design skills in the sector, and will complement the development of a design course and design workshops.

Guest: Penwell Lunga – Chairman: SA Furniture initiative

SA has a jobs problem and despite impressive economic growth, unemployment reached a 10-year high of 28% last year. The country needs to create at least 11-million new jobs over the next decade just to absorb its currently unemployed population and keep pace with demographics. The country can make a significant contribution to employment creation by engaging its nearly 6-million micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSME).
This is the view of Amrei Botha, senior SME banking specialist with the International Finance Corporation. She co-authored this report with KEVIN NJIRAIN IFC regional director for southern Africa & Nigeria

Guest: Amrei Botha - senior SME banking specialist with the International Finance Corporation

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) is looking at churches on whether they should pay tax. Mark Kingon, the acting commissioner of the South African Revenue Service (SARS), said would ensure religious institutions –which are usually exempt from tax – are tax compliant.
What would this really mean for the religious sector?
To speak to us

Guest:Tertius Troost, - Tax manager at Mazars

As you may have heard our previous conversation on how the Chinese community feel discriminated against and also the kind of comments hurled at them. Also last week we spoke a lot about discrimination against foreigners in the country and also what some of the leadership were saying when it comes to issues of crime and health services involving foreign national. The question then arises on how all of this is affecting social cohesion?

Guest:Teresa Oakley-Smith, Managing Director at Diversi-T

South Africans of Chinese decent say that they continue to face discrimination from South Africans themselves. It seems to them that nothing has changed since the dawn of democracy. Erwin Pon says he was shocked when he read comments on the Chinese Association's Facebook page which were full of hate.

Aviation authorities are continuing their investigations into yesterday's Ethiopian Airlines plane crash - after the flight recorders were recovered. The devices are the cockpit voice recorder and the digital flight data recorder. The Boeing 737 Max-8 - en route from Addis Ababa to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi - crashed six minutes after take-off, killing all 157 people on board.

Guest: Sarah Kimani, SABC East African correspondent

Residents of four villages under the Mdluli Tribal Authority at Makoko near White River held a march today over a lease agreement entered into - allegedly without their consent. The community alleges the 99 year lease agreement that was signed by the developers and the tribal authority does not benefit the community. The agreement reportedly involves a piece of land inside the Kruger National Park.

Guest: Amos Mduli - one of the community leaders.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions says that it has noted with deep concern the shocking report that shows that the State Security Agency was used to fight political battles in the build-up to Nasrec ANC Conference. They further call on President Cyril Ramaphosa to act against all those who are implicated in this report and also work to cleanse the SSA of these rogue elements.

Guest: Sizwe Pamla, Cosatu’s National Spokesperson