Wits SRC President Aphiwe Mnyamana has been suspended following protests at the institution for over a week. Students have been protesting over financial exclusion as well as lack of accommodation. Mnyamana was suspended following allegations of misconduct. The university says it gave him an opportunity to make presentations, however, he failed to make presentations. He shared on his social media pages last night that he would be seeking legal action.

Guest: Vezinhlanhla Simelane, President of the South African Student’s Congress.  

Earlier today, Police Minister Bheki Cele led a Ministerial Crime Prevention Imbizo at the Westbury Recreational Hall. The area has recently seen an escalation in gang and drug-related shootings. Residents in and around the Sophiatown policing area had an opportunity to engage the Police Ministry, SAPS, and Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi on policing. Joining us to tell us more about what was discussed is ………. 

GUEST:  Lincoin Leghlo

The Special investigating Unit is probing over 100 law firms for receiving over R300 million in duplicate payments from the Road Accident Fund. Some of the law firms have already signed  acknowledgement of debt to the value of over R60 million. The firms received duplicate payments as compensation to people who were injured in motor vehicle accidents in South African roads.

Guest: SIU spokesperson, Kaizer Kganyago.   

Will President Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment of Dr Kgosientso Ramokgopa as the new minister of electricity in the presidency help us solve our crisis? Ramaphosa announced Dr. Ramokgopa last night as part of his cabinet reshuffle. This minister will focus reducing the severity and frequency of load-shedding, He will liaise with ministers in the energy department and public enterprises to ensure coherence in the issuing of way forward during the national state of disaster.

Guest: energy analyst, Lungile Mashele.   

Hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans left Tunisia over the weekend – after President Kais Saied’s controversial speech concerning illegal immigration. About two weeks ago, Saied told security forces to expel all illegal immigrants, accusing African migrants in particular of being part of a conspiracy to change Tunisia’s demographic make-up by making it more African and less Arab. Following his controversial speech – international organisations, including the AU have condemned Saied comments as racialized hate speech.  

GUEST: Ibrahim Deen, Independent Researcher 

The driver of a truck that was involved in a multi-vehicle crash near the M41 on-ramp in Durban North yesterday morning has handed himself over to the police. Police in KwaZulu-Natal have confirmed that a case of reckless and negligent driving was opened at Durban North SAPS for investigation. For more on this, we are joined by…..  

GUEST: Brigadier Jay Naicker, Police spokesperson in KwaZulu-Natal  

Earlier on today, Statistician General, Risenga Maluleke announced that South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 1,3% in the fourth quarter of last year (that’s between October‒December). According to him, growth was dragged lower mainly by finance, trade, mining, agriculture, manufacturing and general government services. 

GUEST: Risenga Maluleke, Statistician General of South Africa and head of Statistics South Africa 

eThekwini Metro Police say a truck driver involved in today’s multi-vehicle crash on the M41 in Durban fled the scene. It is believed the truck driver lost control of his truck and plunged into more than 50 cars that were in bumper to bumper traffic. 16 people were injured and one was airlifted to hospital in a critical condition. We’re now joined by eThekwini Metro Police Spokesperson, Boysie Zungu.

Wireless Access Provider’s Association says load-shedding is killing 5G in South Africa. 5G has been sold as more efficient than LTE, however, cellular towers that use 5G use more power than LTE. This means network providers are now spending more money on diesel to keep the towers running, increasing production costs. Are we likely to see cellphone companies ditching 5G to save on production costs? We’re now joined by Mybroadband Editor, Jan Vermeulen.

Radio veteran, Mark Pilgrim died yesterday after a yearlong battle with stage 4 cancer. Pilgrim had been in the radio industry for over two decades, having worked both for the public broadcaster and privately owned radio stations. He had been sharing his journey through cancer treatment on his social media pages, giving updates on how he is doing and speaking about how hopeful he was that he would make it. After a few weeks of silence on social media, his family announced his death yesterday. What legacy does he leave in the radio industry? We’re now joined by SAFM’s Ernest Pillay.