After serving close to 10 years for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp – Oscar Pistorius has been granted parole. However, he will only be released in January next year. According to the department of Correctional Services, the parole placement decision was taken after having assessed Oscar’s profile and other material submitted for the purposes of parole consideration.

GUEST: Singabakho Nxumalo, Spokesperson for the Department of Correctional Services

We examine the scope and complexity of work in the State Attorney offices. Some of you may recall that earlier this year post the release of the State Capture Report, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo expressed grave concern about the state’s capacity to defend court applications that were aimed at reviewing the State Capture Report as he was worried that the State Attorney is not sufficiently capacitated to defend the report, however I must also state that it is not only him who is worried about the state of affairs in relation to the functions of Offices of State Attorney. So today we are joined by the Solicitor General who will talk to us about the important role that this office plays in state litigation as we will also look at its relations with different organs of state and what he intends to do to improve the level and quality of service offered by the Offices of State Attorney.

GUEST: Fhedzisani Pandelani, Solicitor General

We hear from Sarah Camp, a final-year medical student at Stellenbosch University, wo recently completed her personal cycling championship that was aimed at assisting other students to pay off their debt. Inspired by Professor Thuli Madonsela's efforts to assist students with university debt, Sarah says she managed to raise just over R32 000. She joins us now to tell us more about her cycling journey…..

GUEST: Sarah Camp, Stellenbosch University medical student

Hawks Public Hearing

Earlier today, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (aka the HAWKS) briefed the nation on the milestones achieved in the second quarter of 2023/24 financial year. In this quarter, 801 arrests have been made and 244 of those accused have been convicted as well as sentenced for national priority offenses. 

National priority offenses that have led to the bulk of these arrests include fraud, cash-in-transit robberies, narcotics, precious metals and diamond theft as well as corruption. The HAWKS have seized various exhibits to the value of over R92 million. 

Guest: Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya - National Head for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation

Earlier this week, we came to you live from Mapungubwe National Park. During the broadcast, one of our listeners referred us to a South African studying towards her PhD on the contemporary human-place interactions in Mapungubwe in post-apartheid South Africa. In the study, she delves into a historical reflection starting from the time of the “discovery” of the site (1932 onwards) and evaluates how Mapungubwe has multiple meanings for various social groups through an ethnographic study. 

Guest: Dr. Tribute Mboweni - Anthropologist 

Investigating officer in the Senzo Meyiwa murder case, Sergeant Batho Mogola has told the high court in Pretoria that accused number one, Muzi Sibiya refused to go to hospital after alleging that he was assaulted. Mogola has wrapped up her cross examination in a trial within a trial to establish the admissibility of an alleged confession statement. Interestingly, today we also witnessed a heated courtroom exchange between Judge Mokgoatlheng and Advocate Zandile Mshololo. Take a listen to what went down before we speak to SABC News reporter Pearl Magubane…….

The repo rate of the South African Reserve Bank remains unchanged at 8.25%, bank governor Lesetja Kganyago has just announced. To explain what this means, we are joined by…..

GUEST: Xhanti Payi, Senior Economist @PwC  

The World Bank has released a report on the impact that crime has on the economy. The report unpacks the economic cost of crime using business and household surveys to quantify it. In the report, it outlined that crime costs up to R700 billion per year and endangers the nation's growth prospects. To unpack some of the key findings, we are joined by....

Guest: Dr Guy Lamb - Crime & Policing specialist at the Dept of Political Science at Stellenbosch University

Our next guest argues that the decision made by Parliament to implement the two-pot retirement system next March is a fundamental change to the SA retirement fund landscape. She argues that its implementation should be handled with great care to ensure that all retirement fund members are treated fairly and afforded the opportunity to consider the impact of the changed landscape on their individual financial affairs. To unpack this, we are joined by.. 

Guest: Adri Messerschmidt - Senior Policy Adviser at the Association for Savings and Investment SA

Parliaments Standing Committee for Justice has recommended that Judge John Hlophe and Judge Nkola Motata be removed from office after committing gross misconduct. This is after the Judicial Service Commission sent a report to Parliament on their impeachment earlier this year. To help us unpack this development, we are joined by…

GUEST: Allison Tilley – Coordinator at Judges Matter