A dedicated team of Operation Smile medical volunteers from across South Africa will converge at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha, to transform the lives of 30 people with cleft lip or cleft palates with corrective surgeries this coming weekend.

GUEST: Sarah Scarth, the Executive Director for Operation Smile SA

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases has issued an alert as an outbreak of Rubella (German measles) has been picked up in Cape Town. Cases of German measles have been concentrated in Khayelitsha thus far with reported cases on the rise in the past month. To tell us more about what communities need to know about the disease and when to seek medical help, we are joined by...    

Guest: Professor Jantjie Taljaard - Head of the Centre for Infectious Diseases at the University of Stellenbosch

As the war between Israel and Hamas is said to be pushing the region to the brink. The Gaza health ministry says at least 500 people were killed last night in what it said was an Israeli airstrike on al-Ahli al-Arabi, also known as the Baptist hospital. However, the Israeli army has disputed this, saying the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group was responsible for the explosion in Gaza. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is currently in Telaviv and we understand that he has reaffirmed the US's support for Israel's war in Gaza during talks with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Let’s now speak to Professor Haidar Eid just to get a sense of where things are at the moment, following yesterday’s airstrike on al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital.

GUEST (GAZA): Professor Haidar Eid, Lecturerat Gaza's al-Aqsa University.

The International Monetary Fund says South Africa’s economy is likely to overtake Nigeria and Egypt as the continent’s largest economy next year. They say this is largely due to the shrinking of Nigeria and Egypt’s GDP in dollar terms following sharp currency devaluations. For more clarity on this, we are joined by…..

GUEST: Tatenda Zingoni, Development Economist

The National Consumer Commission says they welcome the decision by the National Consumer Tribunal to impose an administrative fine of one million rand against Vodacom. The Tribunal found that Vodacom’s conduct was unconscionable by imposing terms and conditions that negated the consumers’ rights to cancel their fixed-term contracts. Between last year and 2021, the National Consumer Commission received and investigated numerous complaints of alleged contravention of various sections of the Consumer Protection Act by Vodacom and their investigation revealed that Vodacom had engaged in prohibited conduct by contravening the Consumer Protection Act. The Acting National Consumer Commissioner joins us now to elaborate further on this……

GUEST: Thezi Mabuza, Acting National Consumer Commissioner

A family in Cala, in the Eastern Cape, recently hosted a posthumous initiation and homecoming ceremony for their son who died more than 10 years ago. However, this has drawn mixed reactions on social media as there are those who have applauded the family and some who totally opposed the move as they felt that it was unusual in the Xhosa culture to do something like this.  

Guest: Nkosi Lukholo Dalubuhle Mrwetyana - Traditional Leader of the Royal House of Mrwetyana

Guest: Bawo Nzipho Kalipha - Cultural Expert

With the month of October being recognised as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Today we chat to Tshepang Lutshaba about her upcoming Wellness Walk Against Cancer which is due to take place next week (28 October). Tshepang founded an organisation called SA United Against Cancer (Sauac) as she wanted to support people living with cancer and cancer survivors. This was motivated by the fact that a number of her family members battled with the same disease.

GUEST: Tshepang Lutshaba, founder of SA United Against Cancer

Television business news channel CNBC Africa has introduced a new Artificial Intelligence newsreader that is designed to augment human productivity. According to the channel, the new AI is not going to replace human beings but will simply serve as a tool to enhance human productivity. So how exactly will it work? We find out from….

Guest (Dubai): Sid Wahi, Executive Director of CNBC Africa

Guest: Arthur Goldstuck - Managing Director of World Wide Worx

An Institute has done a report looking into government spend and the fiscal crisis that has been widely published. It argues that the National Treasury had alternative policy interventions it could have implemented instead of austerity measures. To unpack this, we are joined by...

Guest: Dr Gilad Isaacs -  Executive Director of the Institute for Economic Justice

The Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, has given the Parliament assurance that the medium-term budget cuts will not harm service delivery. Concerns have been raised surrounding notices sent to government departments on austerity measures that will be taken. The minister also addressed that these cuts will not exceed government underspending in previous financial years. To help us understand the implications, we are joined by....

Guest: Dawie Roodt – Economist