Umngeni-Uthukela Water has decided to reduce water supply to the King Cetshwayo municipality due to a R600-million debt owed by the municipality to the Water Board. The last payment received by Umgeni-uThukela Water from the municipality was over two years ago. Joining us to explain as to what led to this decision is…..

GUEST: Thami Mkhwanazi, Chief Financial Officer at UMngeni-uThukela Water

Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, has announced that 93% of identified pit toilets in public schools across South Africa have now been eradicated through the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) initiative. Mahfouz Raffee, Equal Education’s head of research joins me on the line to react to this…

GUEST: Mahfouz Raffee, Equal Education’s head of research

Today marks World Kidney Day and it’s commemorated under the theme “Are Your Kidneys Ok? Detect Early, Protect Kidney Health”. This year’s campaign focuses more on early detection of kidney disease. Joining us to outline the objectives of this year’s theme is…..

GUEST: Sizwe Lungelo Hadebe, World Kidney Day Champion and Ambassador of the Renal Care Society of South Africa

Guest: Jabulani Sithole

The Southern African Development Community has decided to terminate the mandate of its troops deployment in the Democratic Republic of Congo. You may recall that the bloc deployed its mission in Congo about two years ago to help the Congolese army fight rebel groups. The proposed withdrawal will happen in phases. But why pull out all of a sudden and what really informed this decision? To react to this is…..

GUEST: Advocate Pikkie Greeff, National Secretary of the South African National Defence Union (SANDU)

The ANC Caucus in parliament released a statement earlier today stating that they are looking forward to hearing the budget speech as the caucus was confident, Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, will table a budget that is balanced. Question is, did the speech live up to the ANC caucus’ expectations? To answer this question, I am joined on the line by…

GUEST: Mdumiseni Ntuli, ANC Chief Whip

The EFF has made it clear that the party will not only reject a potential 2% VAT increase but the party has also made it a point to remind us about the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act 2009 which empowers MPs to not only reject the proposed fiscal framework and revenue composition, but amend it as well. So, what does the party make of the delivered budget? For more on this, I am joined on the line by…

GUEST: Omphile Maotwe, EFF Treasurer General

Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, delivered his highly anticipated Budget Speech 2025. After the was no agreement with some of the GNU partners in the initial budget that had a 2% VAT increase, what do GNU partners make of the budget delivered today? For more on this, I am joined on the line by…

GUEST: Karabo Khakhau, DA National Spokesperson

The African Christian Democratic Party, ACDP, strongly opposed any increase in VAT ahead of the 2025 Budget Speech. What do they make of the 0.5% announced earlier today by the Finance Minister? Steve Swart, ACDP MP and Chief Whip, joins me on the line to share the party’s views…

GUEST: Steve Swart, ACDP MP and Chief Whip

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has announced that government is going to increase the Value Added Tax by half a percentage point. Another interesting point that was mentioned by the minister is that the institutional structure of local government will be reviewed through the updating of the white paper of local government, which essentially means that the review process will examine how to appropriately finance local government, relative to their functions and their reform.

GUEST: Miyelani Holeni, Local government expert with specialisation in revenue management and governance