Old Mutual SME Feature: As we continue to bring you more stories about how Old Mutual has been supporting SMEs. Today, Velani Mboweni will share his story as someone who has benefited from Old Mutual Enterprise Supplier Development (ESD) funding.  

GUEST: Velani Mboweni - CO-FOUNDER & CEO of LULA  

Small businesses have been hardest hit by the impact of load-shedding. Many businesses are cannot afford alternative sources of power and are losing four to eight hours of productivity per day and some have had to lay off people as a result. Kwanele Mtolo owns two restaurant in Mofolo in Soweto. She’s had challenges with keeping her stock cold to ensure it doesn’t go off. She’s also had to let go of some employees as the businesses have not been able to make money due to the power outages.

Parliament’s Public Enterprises committee has raised questions about the planned sale of SAA to Equity Partner, Takatso Consortium. Management from SAA briefed the committee on its annual financial statements from 2017 following years of non-submission. MPs looked at the financial statements, but were mainly concerned about recent developments in the SAA issue and reports that Treasury may withdraw its support for the deal. What are the main concerns? We are now joined by DA MP, Alf Lees. 

A female police officer stationed at the Durban Harbour Police Station in KwaZulu-Natal, made her first appearance in court yesterday, for the alleged murder of her boyfriend. It is alleged that the officer had an argument with her partner after she found a receipt for condoms in his trousers. Then the confrontation led to the fatal shooting of the victim.   

Guest: Lizzy Suping, Spokesperson, Independent Police Investigative Directorate  

As South Africa’s biggest cities are working on strategies to secure their own power supplies as Eskom struggles to meet demand due to continuous breakdowns. We are now joined by Sbu Ntshalintshali, from eThekwini municipality energy office and he is going to share his municipality’s plan to end load shedding. Their long-term plans will see the municipality procuring 2,600 megawatts of generation by 2035 from a mix of power sources including coal and nuclear.  

GUEST: Sbu Ntshalintshali, from eThekwini Municipality Energy Office  

Private forensic investigator, Paul O’Sullivan has welcomed the arrest of high-ranking police officials in connection with a 2016 over 54-million-rand police tender. The former acting national police commissioner, Khomotso Phahlane, is among the six accused who appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria this morning. These officials are facing fraud, theft and corruption charges.  

GUEST: Paul O’Sullivan, Private forensic investigator  

we look at Shinzo Abe’s complicated political legacy and try to understand as to why so many people and opposition parties in Japan don’t want the late former prime minister to be granted a state funeral. It’s been more than two months since he was assassinated and we understand that Japan will hold a state funeral next week Tuesday. But why has it taken so long? We find out from…… 

Guest: Salman Khan, Independent political analyst on South-East Asia  

In another example of how social media can open doors to opportunities, South African artist Mthandazo Gatya participated in the #OpenVerseChallenge on Tiktok and stitched a duet with American RnB singer, John Legend. He added a Zulu verse on John Legend’s song titled ‘nervous’. The video has since gone viral with many artists responding to it, including John Legend himself and DJ Black Coffee. What does this response mean to Mthandazo Gatya? He joins us on the line now. 

Eskom has announced a three programme plan to procure power for the national grid in order to deal with the ongoing power crisis. The power utility wants to procure power from companies who have existing generation capacity for a period of three years. It is also looking into procuring more expensive power during periods when the grid is significantly constrained. Lastly, Eskom wants to look into a Bilateral Power Import Programme to secure imports of power to the country from neighbouring countries. Will this work? We are now joined by energy expert, Jacob Maroga.

Eskom has announced a three programme plan to procure power for the national grid in order to deal with the ongoing power crisis. The power utility wants to procure power from companies who have existing generation capacity for a period of three years. It is also looking into procuring more expensive power during periods when the grid is significantly constrained. Lastly, Eskom wants to look into a Bilateral Power Import Programme to secure imports of power to the country from neighbouring countries. Will this work? We are now joined by energy expert, Jacob Maroga.