SAFM’s Oliver Dickson will be hosting The Great Debate this Friday on his show, This Week, Today. Debating students will be from the University of Johannesburg and the University of Pretoria. The topic is ‘In South Africa there is one police officer for every 408 citizens, while the United Nations recommends one police officer for every 220 citizens. Should we Nationalize private security into the South African Police Service?’ What can we expect? We are now joined by Siya Ndebele, member of the debate committee at the University of Johannesburg.

As we enter the last quarter of the year, there are many entrepreneurs who want to expand their business. One of the most prominent challenges entrepreneurs face is access to capital, and now is the time to start getting yourself investor ready to hit the new year running. According to Nobesuthu Ndlovu, Director of SME for Old Mutual, investors are particular about what they are looking for when investing. She joins us now to share five golden rules when it comes to enabling financing. 

GUEST: Nobesuthu Ndlovu, Director of SME for Old Mutual  

764 misconduct cases were reported to the South African Council for Teachers between April 2021 and March 2022. 443 were reported for the same period in the previous financial year. 35% of the cases involved administering corporal punishment on learners or assaulting other colleagues. 191 of the cases implicated teachers in sexual misconduct, rape, indecent assault and sexual assault of learners. The Western Cape topped the list of corporal punishment cases, followed by Free State and Gauteng. The South African Schools Act outlawed corporal punishment at schools to pupils in 1996. For some reaction to that, we are now joined by Basil Manuel, Executive Director at the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa is currently at Nkantolo village in Mbizana in the Eastern Cape where he will officially open the Little Flower Early Childhood Development Centre. The centre was built in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation and the Department of Basic Education, and it has been operating from a shack structure for several years. To explain the significance of today’s occasion is …….. 

GUEST: Sello Hatang, Chief Executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation  

Since Sunday (2 October), extremely hot and dry conditions have continued to prevail over a large part of the Highveld. The South African Weather Service consequently issued a weather advisory, indicating that heatwave conditions could be expected to persist from Sunday onwards. At the current time, many parts of North-West, northern Free State, Gauteng as well as the eastern Highveld of Mpumalanga are registering maximum temperatures in the high 30’s, with no immediate prospect of relief in sight. So what informs the current heatwave? For more on this, we are joined by …… 

GUEST: Professor Roelof Burger, Professor of Environmental Sciences and Management at North-West University  

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni has decided to remove his son, Lieutenant-General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, as the commander of the land forces after he posted controversial tweets that threatened bilateral relations with Kenya. In recent months, Kainerugaba sparked anger among some Ugandans who view his frequent tweets as provocative and sometimes dangerous. To explain what this all means is …… 

Guest on the line (Uganda): Dismas Nkunda, Chief Executive Officer of the Atrocities Watch Africa which is based in Uganda  

A story by IOL looks at a divorce case where a woman approached the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to divorce her husband and ask for half of her husband’s pension. The couple is married in community of Property, however the husband said his wife is a cheater and shouldn’t be entitled to his pension. He made reference to many instances of cheating including a time where she left their home for months and came back with a baby. The court ruled she would forfeit half of her husband’s pension because she had left him and their children for other people. We are now joined on the line by Shani Van Niekerk, Senior Associate Attorney at Adams & Adams.

What will it take for South Africa to start taking statutory rape seriously and prosecute men who take advantage of children? 150 young girls between the ages of 10 and 14 have given birth in the Free State in the past five months. The health department in the province also says over 14000 teenagers between 15 and 19 gave birth in the past year. Why does this keep getting worse and what can we do to protect young girls? We are now joined by Dr Shaheda Omar, Director at the Teddy Bear Clinic.

A total of 150 young girls between the ages of 10 and 14 have given birth in the Free State in the past five months. Statistics by the health department in the province also show just over 14000 teenagers between 15 and 19 gave birth in the past year. We are now joined by SABC News Reporter, Kamogelo Seekoei