Understanding the plight of Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans in KwaZulu-Natal: In conversation with Zibuse Cele who is leading the province’s disgruntled members of the MKMVA who were thrown out of an unused government building in the Durban CBD yesterday. But before we speak to him, take a listen to Vuyiswa’s call who also complained about the ill treatment of military veterans about two weeks ago.

Guest: Zibuse Cele, MKMVA KwaZulu-Natal convener

Guest: Phumeza Dzuguda, Spokesperson for the Department of Military Veterans

Guest: Jomo Sibiya, Mec for Human Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal

President Cyril Ramaphosa has been invited to attend this year’s G7 Summit that starts today and ends on Sunday in Cornwall in the United Kingdom. South Africa has also been invited for its role as co-chair of the ACT-Accelerator Facilitation Council, which aims to expedite research, manufacturing and equitable distribution of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics across the world.
Guest: Professor Patrick Bond: Professor of Governance at the University of the Western Cape

Social Development Minister, Ms Lindiwe Zulu says government is currently discussing whether or not to extend the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant. The grant was introduced last year by President Cyril Ramaphosa as part of social relief initiatives to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
GUEST: Social Development Minister, Ms Lindiwe Zulu

South Africa has recorded over 9000 new Covid-19 cases today. We speak to Health Department Director General, Dr. Sandile Buthelezi about the progress on the country`s vaccination roll-out programme which include updates on a number of issues including the following: EVDS registration, Walk-ins/unscheduled appointments at vaccinations sites, and an update on J&J vaccine & planned vaccination of educators and the status update on acquisition of other vaccines in the country.
GUEST: Health Department Director General, Dr. Sandile Buthelezi

Police Minister Bheki Cele says police officers will not receive salary increases for the next three years. Briefing the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), yesterday on the department's budget vote. Minister Cele said the salary freeze was in line with the government's plan to remain within government's expenditure ceiling. The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) say they find the posture about overworked and underpaid police officers not only offensive, but setting a wrong precedent.
GUEST: Richard Mamabolo, Spokesperson for the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU)

Public protector Busisiwe Advocate Mkhwebane is confident that she will finish her seven-year term, which comes to an end in 2023. This despite an ongoing parliamentary process looking into her fitness to hold office
GUEST: Public Protector, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane

As the country reels from stage 3 and 4 loadshedding. President Cyril Ramaphosa has just made an important announcement that is aimed at reducing loadshedding. About three hours ago, the president announced the amendment of schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act to increase the NERSA licensing threshold for embedded generation projects from 1 MW to 100 MW. Joining us to explain what this all means is…..
Guest: Meta Mhlarhi-Maponya, Director and Co-founder of Mahlako A Phahla Group. She is also Chairperson and Co-founder of Black Energy Professionals Association

Recently, Stats SA revealed that the unemployment rate in the country increased from 30, 8% in quarter 3 of 2020 to 32,5% in quarter 4 of 2020, the highest unemployment rate recorded since the start of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey in 2008. Which then begs the question as to how best can we tackle this problem? Professor Vusi Gumede is of the view that all relevant stakeholders in the country must work together to defeat this persistent problem.
Guest: Professor Vusi Gumede is the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Development and Business Sciences at the University of Mpumalanga

World News: Edson Isaacks explains why opposition lawmakers in Namibia are against government’s reconciliation settlement with Germany. Opposition politicians are furious about being excluded from negotiations that will see Germany officially apologising for colonial atrocities and offering a $1.3bn settlement which would go into development projects over the next 30-years.
Guest: Edson Isaacks, MP and Operative Secretary of the Landless People's Movement Namibia (LPM)

There is confusion on whether a Gauteng woman has indeed given birth to 10 babies. There were several reports that thirty-seven-year-old Gosiame Thamara Sithole gave birth to her decuplets at a Pretoria hospital, breaking the current Guinness World Record of 9 babies. But the Gauteng Provincial Government's Acting Director General, Thabo Masebe says they checked with all private hospitals in the province and none of them performed such deliveries.
GUEST: Gauteng Provincial Government's Acting Director General, Thabo Masebe