South Africa has struggled with incidences of xenophobic sentiment and related prejudice, violence, and crime for many years. The cost of xenophobia is high; it puts lives in danger, stunts economic potential by deterring investment, tourism and cross-border trade, and risks making South Africa a pariah in Africa and on the global arena. To discuss what should South Africa be doing to address this issue is…..

Guest: Gwen Ngwenya, DA Head of Policy

Former social development minister Bathabile Dlamini has been found guilty of perjury in her case pertaining to the South African Social Security Agency’s debacle. Dlamini was accused of lying under oath during the inquiry instituted by the Constitutional Court in 2017.  

Guest: Phindi Louw - Spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority in Gauteng

The radical amendments to the Cannabis for Private Purposes bill were presented for the first time to parliament’s justice and constitutional development portfolio committee on Tuesday.

The committee hopes to pass the bill in parliament by the end of this term in April, after which it will go to the National Council of Provinces. It will also likely have to go for a second round of public hearings, because the amendments were introduced after the public consultation process had been completed.

Guest: Bulelani Mangwanishe - Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development

We hear from the Public Works Minister – following yesterday’s ruling by the Special Tribunal, ordering that the companies that were contracted to construct the Beitbridge border fence must pay back any profits received for the project. On the other hand, the Democratic Alliance is calling for De Lille to resign, arguing that the SIU report found her interference in the appointment of the contractors inappropriate.

Guest: Patricia De Lille, Minister for Public Works

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has suffered another legal defeat after her rescission application, relating to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC presidential campaign of 2017 was dismissed by the Concourt earlier today. The Constitutional court concluded that the application should be dismissed as no case has been made out for rescission. For more analysis on this, we are joined by……

Guest: Karyn Maughn, Senior Legal Journalist

We examine the ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine as many say they are at a critical juncture. Currently, there are no significant breakthroughs, although Ukrainian officials say there are slight shifts on safe passages for civilians attempting to flee the war-torn country.

Guest: Dr Emanuel Matambo, Research Director at the Centre for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg

The theft of fuel from the Transnet pipeline network is an enormous problem in South Africa. To tackle this problem - last year, Transnet decided to implement various security interventions to address the fuel theft attempts, which according to them have yielded positive results and reduced the number of incidents by 50%. However there was another fuel theft incident that was reported this morning and Transnet says they continue to work with law enforcement agencies to stop this criminal activity. But how rife is this problem – do South Africans even understand the inherent dangers associated with fuel theft?

Guest: Saret Knoetze, Transnet Pipelines Spokesperson

Some mayors have welcomed calls for the introduction of performance management and accountability for all councillors including mayors and speakers. The proposal contained in the SA Local Government Association’s (Salga) five-year strategic plan for the period 2022-27, wants a remuneration regime that is based on performance and accountability. We’ll get an understanding of the proposed performance based remuneration and what this proposal entails; what are the procedures that still need to be followed in order for such a proposal to be approved and implemented. 

GUEST: Miyelani Holeni, from Ntiyiso Consulting

As the digital migration process is already underway to switch off analogue terrestrial television transmitters. Civil Society is uniting to challenge government plans to disconnect the analogue TV signal of over 14 million people. They are arguing that once the digital migration process is in full swing, our country’s communication system will be even further privatised as those that can afford will move over to Multichoice, and they want government to delay the switch-over.

Guest: Hassan Logart, Spokesperson of the Peoples Media Consortium