Another blow for the South African entertainment industry. Gospel musician Deborah Fraser passed away on Sunday. The family released a statement announcing her death after a short illness. Fraser has had a long career dating back to the 80s, working with industry greats including the late Brenda Fassie whom she spent years doing backing vocals for.

Guest: Lesley mofokeng - former entertainment journalist, author and Spokesperson for the South African Music Awards.

Black Sash reacts to the ongoing SRD grants debacle that has seen many eligible people missing out on their payments. You may recall that last month the organisation warned that many South Africans may not receive their Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant payments after the Department of Social Development and SASSA halted application processing for April without explanation. Only just recently, Social Development minister Lindiwe Zulu came out to assure qualifying R350 social relief of distress (SRD) grant beneficiaries that they will receive their payments by June. So what does it all mean and who should shoulder the blame for this fiasco?

Guest: Hooda Abrahams-Fayker, National Advocacy Manager at Black Sash

The South African Students Congress is calling for the expulsion of a white student over a racist incident that happened over the weekend. In a video that’s sparked outrage, the white student is seen urinating over the belongings of the black student. He allegedly broke into the student’s room while he was sleeping. It’s also alleged when asked why he was doing that, he said it’s what he does to black boys. The university is investigating the incident.

Guest: Sfiso Zungu, Sasco’s Provincial Convener in the Western Cape. He’s also a student at Stellenbosch University.

Dark days are upon us. Eskom has announced stage 4 load-shedding from 5pm until 10pm. The power utility is asking South Africans to use electricity sparingly as maintenance continues. It says Unit 2 of the Kusile Power Station tripped earlier today, taking 720MW of generation capacity with it.

Guest: Energy analyst, Chris Yelland.

South Africa has identified an imported case of Lassa fever, the first since 2007. Lassa fever is a viral infection that is endemic to the West African countries and mostly reported in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Nigeria. Up to 300 000 cases of Lassa fever, with about 5000 deaths, are recorded annually in the endemic countries. 

Guest: Tulio de Oliveira, Professor of Bioinformatics at the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking @ Stellenbosch University

Somalia's former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud was on Sunday night re-elected into office following an intense contest with the incumbent Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo. It was a repeat of the February 8, 2017 contest when Mohamoud conceded defeat to Farmaajo, a newcomer at the time. So what does his re-election mean for the people of Somalia and what can he do differently this time around?

Guest: Abdirizak Osman, Somalian Political science student based in South Africa

As we unpack the fourth Budget Speech of KwaZulu-Natal’s Provincial Legislature, we are joined by Nontembeko Boyce (Speaker of the KZN Legislature) who will talk to us about why it’s important that committees must ensure that state resources and budgets are structured and spent primarily to achieve the stated provincial priorities.

Guest: Nontembeko Boyce, Speaker of the KZN Legislature

School has been dismissed at Thaba-Jabula Secondary in Soweto following a fatal stabbing of a schoolboy by another pupil on Thursday. The Basic Education department says the boy who stabbed him was allegedly defending a younger sibling who was being bullied by the deceased. He initially fled the scene but has since been arrested.

Guest: Gauteng Education Spokesperson, Steve Mabona

Unions have for years been clear on their stance against a secret strike ballot which seeks to protect union members from intimidation, but now government is looking at reintroducing requirements for a secret strike ballot. Companies have argued in many cases during strikes that some workers want to come back to work, but do not, out of fear of intimidation by fellow union members. The labour department is now wants to amend the law in order to bring back the secrecy requirement. A proposal has been tabled to the National Economic Development and Labour Council as part of the review process of the Labour Relations Act. The proposal will be sent to parliament when Nedlac is done deliberating on it.

Guest: labour analyst, Tzvi Brivik

Astronomers have captured the first image of Milky Way's black hole. Till recently its presence was only established theoretically but now for the first time we can have a glimpse of an actual hole in our cosmic neighbourhood. Roger Deane, Wits Professor of Astrophysics, and his student were two Africans involved in the discovery and photography of the Black Hole. He joins us now to elaborate more on the significance of this discovery…..

Guest: Roger Deane, Professor of Astrophysics