The View Point

 GUEST: PETER FABRICIUS - FOREIGN POLICY ANALYST AND DAILY MAVERICK JOURNALIST

 HOW DID THE GUPTA BROTHERS SLIP THROUGH OUR FINGERS?

Dr Trevor Ngwane is a socialist and anti-apartheid activist. He previously worked as a sociology lecturer at Wits University where he helped found the Wits Workers' School, to teach literacy to the campus cleaners and gardeners. He was the National Education Officer for the Transport & General Workers Union of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. In 1995 he was elected Ward Councillor for Pimville Zone 5 and 7, Soweto, on an African National Congress ticket. 

In 1999 he was expelled by the ANC for opposing the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality's privatization of municipal services. In 2001, he helped found the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee and then the Anti-Privatisation Forum in 2002, which both campaign against the privatisation of public services.

Guest:  Dr. Trevor Ngwane Director of the Centre for Sociological Research and Practice  AND founder of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee]   

 For his takeover, Dr Ngwane will focus on the scrapping of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit which will happen on the 30th of June. He is of the view that it will cause a lot of suffering to ordinary people and is a step backwards away from Pan Africanist solidarity

Guest: Lydia Moyo, Project leader of a research project into ZEPs at UP   

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#2024 African Continental Free Trade Agreement Business Forum

The three-day 2024 African Continental Free Trade Agreement Business Forum (AfCTFA), which got under way at the Cape Town International Conference Centre on Sunday, is the first in-person forum of its kind since AfCTFA was established in July 2019, and is aimed at implementing an actionable plan arising out of their first report “AfCTFA: A new Era for global business and investment in Africa.”

The AfCFTA aims to progressively eliminate tariffs and make it easier for African businesses to trade within the continent, to benefit from the growing African market which currently stands at some 1.3 billion consumers.

Guest: Lily Sommer, AfCFTA Programme Manager at the International Trade Centre  

Guest: Prof. Bonang Mohale, President of Business Unity South Africa

Guest: Connie Mulder, Head of Research at Solidarity  

Guest: Matthew Parks , COSATU’s Parliamentary coordinator  

President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the Employment Equity Bill into law. The Employment Equity Amendment Bill, 2020 was passed by Parliament in May 2022.

According to the Presidency, the new laws will promote diversity and equality in the workplace and empower the government to set specific equity targets by sector and region, where transformation initiatives have lagged.

The law requires companies with more than 50 employees to submit employment equity plans for their companies on how to meet these targets, and then submit annual reports to the Department of Employment and Labour. And companies seeking to do business with the state will be required to submit a certificate from the Department confirming that they are in compliance with the Employment Equity Act. 

The objectives of the amendments are to empower the Employment and Labour Minister to regulate sector-specific Employment Equity (EE) targets and to regulate compliance criteria to issue EE Compliance Certificates in terms of Section 53 of the EE Act.

Guest: Joan van Dyk, News Editor at Bhekisisa

We’re in conversation with Joan van Dyk, the news editor at Bhekisisa. She recently wrote an article that speaks about how the past three health ministers have failed the nursing profession by not speeding up on the necessary amendments to give nurses more authority in prescribing and dispensing medicines, and eventually easing the burden on the public health system. 

Medicines such as antidepressants are grouped under schedule five and the prescription schedule for narcotic painkillers such as morphine is one level higher. Medicines at these levels have a moderate to high risk of dependence and so they can only be prescribed by doctors at the moment.

Because Aaron Motsoaledi, Zweli Mkhize and Joe Phaahla all failed to complete the final steps required for the new regulations to kick in, South African nurses’ prescribing rules are stuck in 1984, when they were first published.

In practice, this means nurses can be trained to prescribe and dispense medicines only up to schedule four (which includes antibiotics and HIV treatment, for instance).

As we are all aware by now, it appears that the man who works for Eskom that switches our power on and off has returned from leave, with loadshedding having been reimplemented and now the country is on stage 6.

Apart from loadshedding being an annoyance and inconvenience to many South Africans, it can also result in individuals and businesses suffering damage in various forms.

Does Eskom have the right to simply deny us power as and when it deems fit? Is a person entitled to take legal action against Eskom if they or their business suffer financial or other damages as a result of the same?

Guest: Tshepo Mojapelo ,Director at Mojapelo Attorneys (a civil litigation law firm) 

Guest: Mr koffi Kouakou, Analyst with interest in France Politics

#What to expect from this week's pension protests in France

Guest:  Prof. Pitika Ntuli, South African sculptor, poet, writer, and academic

#Durban Art Gallery to stage Pitika Ntuli’s acclaimed exhibition

#TUESDAYTAKEOVER - Dr Sithembiso Bhengu – Director at Chris Hani Institute

Guest: Dr. Sithembiso Bhengu , Director at Chris Hani Institute  

Guest: Prof. Mandla J. Radebe ,Associate Professor in the Department of Strategic Communication and the Director for the Centre for Data and Digital Communications at University of Johannesburg.]  

Guest: Ms Theresa Michel, CEO Afrika Tikkun Bambanani

Bambanani - Creating a better future for children through education - Bambanani Sifunde = Coming Together To Learn