Prophet Shepherd Bushiri has sought to explain the events that led to a stampede during a church service in Pretoria last month. He is representing the Enlightenment Christian Gathering (ECG) church at a hearing convened by the CRL Rights Commission. Three people were killed in the stampede and nine others seriously injured. The South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) is demanding that the church closes.

Guest:SABC reporter Thabile Mbele

Firefighters in Cape4 Town say they will continue to monitor the situation on Lion's Head and Signal Hill in after containing a threatening mountain fire overnight. The flames threatened homes on the mountain slopes after igniting late yesterday afternoon.

Guest: Theo Layne – Spokesperson for the City of Cape Town’s fire and rescue

This weekend is the final weekend for the voter registration. A new study says about 4.5 million eligible voters have no intention of registering to vote ahead of this year's general elections. This is according to the South African Citizens Survey which found that there were 37-million South Africans aged 18 years and older who were eligible to vote in the fourth quarter of 2018.
The survey found that a significant proportion of them were young South Africans, with about one third aged between 18 and 24 years and another third aged between 25 and 34 years.

guest: Prof. Susan Booysen - Director of Research at Mapungubwe Institute

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni caused a twitter storm today after he tweeted, “ I publicly, and in my personal capacity, DISAGREE, with the phasing out of Afrikaans as one of the mediums of teaching at the University of Pretoria. As a country, you are shooting yourselves down. You will regret it in 30 years’ time.”.

Guest: Arthur Goldstuck - CEO – World Wide Worx

South Africa’s agricultural industry body AgriSA says it will approach banks, agribusiness and government to raise 3 billion rand to help farmers hit by severe drought. Farmers have faced dry conditions over most of the nation for the last year, even as they are still recovering from a disastrous El Nino-induced drought in 2015. A survey of producers showed that 31,000 jobs and 7 billion rand in potential revenue were lost since January last year because of drought, AgriSA

Guest: Omri van Zyl - CEO – AgriSA

Zimbabwe’s Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry has declared today as “Dhuku” Day in honour of music legend Dr Oliver Mtukudzi. Mtukudzi who died on Wednesday afternoon at the Avenues Clinic in Harare also worked with ONE and its sister organisation RED to bring awareness on Africa’s fight to end the reign of one of Africa’s enemies, HIV/AIDS. ONE is a campaigning and advocacy organization of more than nine million people around the world taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.

guest: Rudo Kwaramba-Kayombo, Executive Director of ONE in Africa Campaign

The South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights says it would approach the courts soon to address the issue of some prisoners who are not going to be able to register to vote. This is due to them not being able to register as they serve their sentences outside of the provinces.

guest: Golden Miles Bhudu, President of the South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights

In another victory for the civil society coalition defending a Mpumalanga strategic water source area, the North Gauteng High Court today refused mining company Atha Africa leave to appeal the court’s decision to set aside permissions for a new coal mine inside a declared protected environment.

Guest: Catherine Horsfield - Centre for Environmental Rights Attorney and Head of the Centre’s Mining Programme.

Frans Cronje - the CEO of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) wrote yesterday that the South African government is quite close to the point where it could begin seizing property without compensation. He says there are twin processes at play, and their implications extend beyond farms and agriculture to threatened seizures of pension funds and even the economy itself.

Guest: Michael Morris - Head of media at IRR

The World Economic Forum is currently taking place in Davos, Switzerland. President Ramaphosa is there leading a South African delegation that includes Minister of Health, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi.

Guest: Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi - Minister of Health – joins me on the line from Davos