Focus: This morning Bryan is dealing with how to be organised in the event of your death. He now joins us in studio to educate us on the subject...

Guest(Studio): Bryan Hirsch - Chairperson of Bryan Hirsch, Colley & Associates (Pty) Limited

Tomorrow (Wednesday) schools will be opening. The Department of Basic Education is adamant that all systems are in place. So far it was some parents in Gauteng who were complaining about the ineffectiveness of the online system. Other parents are worried about late admissions and whether they will be allowed. So we thought to invite the department to get a sense of the state of readiness as the school calendar is about to start. Let’s welcome now..

Guest: Matakanye Matakanye - General secretary of the National Association of School Governing Bodies

 Over the weekend, a first case of the new COVID-19 sub-variant (Kraken) has been recorded in South Africa. The discovery was made in the Western Cape on 27 December and the Department of Health is still gathering information on the new variant's rate of transmissibility. To tell us more about the variant, we are joined by…

Guest: Prof. Tulio de Oliveira - Professor of Bioinformatics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Stellenbosch University

Guest: Dr. Angelique Coetzee - Chairperson of South African United Business Confederation's health committee

This morning, we will zoom into the issue of unity in the ANC. Every conference ends with a call for unity. But we saw what happened when KZN entered the conference with Zuma last year where they disrupted President Ramaphosa as he was delivering his address. Is Zuma still the elephant in the room for the ANC? Zuma and Ramaphosa are taking each other to court currently. Carl Nehaus on the other hand is talking about starting a new party. Is unity an illusion for the ANC and do we really understand the damage caused by the Polokwane conference? That's where we saw it for the first time playing out in public and the ANC never healed from it ever since. What impact is all of this having on the running of the country and service delivery in general?

Guest: Rebone Tau - Political Analyst, Author and Research Fellow at the Institute for Pan-African Thought & Conversation

Guest: Lukhanyo Vangqa – Political Analyst

Our next guest is a vocalist, trumpeteer and musical director. He is well-known for his versatility in Jazz, Western Classical and African indigenous music. He has gone onto perform with numerous musicians of note: Jimmy Dludlu, The Abdullah Ibrahim Big Band, Robbie Jansen, Max Vidima and Moreira Chonguica.

He has produced, played and co-written on Nomfundo Xaluva’s multi award-winning albums KUSILE and From.Now.On. As a columnist for Music in Africa wrote in her review of his most recent album, Cwaka: What Dyantyi’s rise to popularity represents is that jazz in its most traditional sense is not dead. To the contrary, traditional jazz in South Africa is thriving.

Guest: Mandisi Dyantyi - Musician

Some KwaZulu Natal municipalities have set aside over five-point-eight million rand to provide services, such as water and mobile toilets, for thousands of Nazareth Baptist Church members, who are undertaking a pilgrimage in the Ndwedwe area mountains this weekend.

The eThekwini, Ndwedwe and the Ilembe districts will be providing services to all factions of the Shembe Church. So we thought to use this opportunity to get to understand the history of the church outside of the controversy in an effort to educate ourselves on their on their existence and how they got to where they are today. To help us navigate this issue, we are joined on the line by…

Guest: Dr Ngogi Emmanuel Mahaye - Chairperson of the Isiqabetho (Division of scholars in the Shembe Church)

As the first week of the year comes to an end, we reflect on the return of die Tweede Nuwe Jaar. As thousands celebrate the colourful parades down the streets of Cape Town for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been several changes to the route of the showpiece that does not uphold Bo-Kaap traditions.

Some of these changes include the sponsorship of the event by a betting company, the change of the parade route away from the Bo-Kaap and not reinvesting in the upliftment of Cape Flat communities. She goes a step further to call out the City of Cape Town for not treating the community as equal partners and there are no consultative engagements prior to the festival. To unpack some of the key changes and what they mean to the cultural heritage of the festival, 

Guest: Seeham Semaai - Cultural activist and African feminist lawyer

 In South Africa, more than 10 million tons of edible surplus food is either lost or wasted throughout the supply chain annually. This is while nearly 30 million people experience moderate to severe food insecurity each month.

South Africa does not have a policy to govern food donations. Our next guest is proposing that legislating a food donations policy would allow South Africa to not only recover quality food but also redistribute this food to improve food security at the household level and end malnutrition.

Guest: Andy du Plessis - Managing Director of Food Forward SA

In a feel-good story, we turn our attention to the volunteer lifeguards of Life Saving South Africa who spend their time protecting the public from drowning at our beaches.

During the 2021/2022 season, the teams across South Africa took part in 1462 rescues and 3885 first-aid cases. They have helped train 4160 lifeguards.

Guest: Dhaya Sewduth - President of Lifesaving South Africa

While we have made it to a new year, we are still burdened with a declining public trust in our leadership and institutions. Our next guest has written an opinion piece that unpacks not only the value of public trust in society but reminds us of the power we hold as citizens when we recognize its currency. She challenges the reader to reconsider investing in our leaders and asks the reader to set new benchmarks for these leaders in order to regain our collective trust.

Guest: Dr. Sheetal Bhoola - Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Zululand