The View Point

Guest: Mark Heywood – Executive Director at Section 27
Last week, Cancer Alliance and Treatment Action Campaign convened a summit to deliberate on the cancer crisis that is looming in South Africa. Civil society says they are concerned by the dramatic increase in the number of people with and they believe that we’re faced with a problem that is similar to that which we faced years ago, when we were grappling with HIV.
We zoom in on some of the issues that have been raised, which include – the cost of medication; access to treatment and the affordability of treatment; the lack of proper diagnostics in public hospitals and how this leads to the late discovery of cancer cells; the visible global trend that we’re seeing how South Africa should be planning for it.

Guest: *Raks Seakhoa – Founding Director of wRite Associates
There are key metaphors and litmus tests for the devolution of democracy and political power. Among them is the burning of books, schools and libraries. Last night, copies of Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s book, Gangster State: Unravelling Ace Magashule's Web of Capture, were ripped apart and trampled upon at the publication’s launch at Sandton City Mall.
What kind of precedent are we setting if we burn some of the tools that are supposed to liberate us? Do such actions not further perpetuate the stereotype that black people don’t read (or don’t connect with anything book related)? Where does this trend come from (because it was scarce during the apartheid struggles)?

We’re celebrating the life of one of South Africa’s fearless liberation stalwarts; reminding ourselves of his ideologies; and trying to find that leader in each and every one of us

Guest: Professor Nombe Mpako - Director of School of Arts in the College of Humans Sciences at Unisa
A Black Aesthetic: A View of South African Artists (1970 – 1990), an exhibition that draws from the University of Fort Hare Art Collection. Presented for the first time outside of the Eastern Cape since 1992, the Collection features one of the country’s largest holdings of Black South African artists working between the period of 1970 and 1990, leading to the first democratic elections in 1994.

H. E Vincent Karega – Rwandan High Commissioner to South Africa
Bongani Majola – Chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission – And the previous Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

In just 100 days in 1994, about 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda by ethnic Hutu extremists. They were targeting members of the minority Tutsi community, as well as their political opponents, irrespective of their ethnic origin. Guests: H. E Vincent Karega – Rwandan High Commissioner to South Africa
How has the country moved on? How did the Gacaca Courts assist the people of Rwanda?

Guests Joe Leshabane – he’s the Deputy Director General responsible for programmes and Projects in the Department of Human Settlements and
Edward Molopi – Community Research and Advocacy Office @SERI – Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa.

We’re talking about the failure of democratic SA in addressing the apartheid spatial planning; spatial planning as it is and how it has stripped many people off their dignity; and the how the lack of rural and township development has led to the influx of informal settlements.

Guests: Nkosana Matyeshana, Senani Mangisa and Sijadu Mzozoyana - Members of the Gwijo Squad

Guests: Waseem Carrim – CEO of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA)
The past weekend marked the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Kalushi Solomon Mahlangu’s execution by the apartheid regime.
How is his legacy being kept alive – especially to be in line with the needs and challenges that today’s youth is facing? Why is Kalushi important to the history of South Africa?

Guests: Themba Mabaso – Director at the Bureau of Heraldry at the Department of Arts and Culture and
Pieter Odendaal – Poet; Translator; Researcher ad PhD Candidate at Queensland University of technology in Australia

We’re exactly one month away from the voting polls and it is quiet difficult for us to talk about strengthen our democracy without looking at our national anthem and the discomfort that ‘Die Stem’ brings to many South Africans. What are South Afrikans saying about ‘Die Stem’. Why is the National Anthem the way that it is now (how did we get here)? What offence (to who) will be caused if it stays that way or if it changes?

Guests: Thandi Smith - Head of Policy at Media Monitoring Africa,
Sam Mkhokheli – Chairperson of the SANEF Media Freedom Sub Committee
Are journalists not capable of handling criticism? What is it that journalist do that upsets politicians and the public at large? And when we look at freedom of speech and ethical conduct, where should journalists draw the line (in order for them not to infringe other people's rights on a quest to break a story)? Is the turmoil between the media, private sector executive and politician a South African phenomenon or is it a global issue?