The View Point

Guest: Simran Sahib Bisnath, Founder of the initiative Legacy Gala for Girls

Period Poverty is a pervasive issue in South Africa impacting up to 7 million girls. This has serious socio-economic consequences which can limit the girl child in terms of overcoming poverty. 16-year- old Simran Sahib Bisnath, founder of the initiative Legacy Gala for Girls is determined to change this and joins us for further insights.

Guest: Prof. Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI) and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Plaform (KRISP). Prof. de Oliveira is a Professor of Bioinformatics at the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking, Stellenbosch University and at the College of Health Sciences at UKZN

The rapid expansion of genomics surveillance in Africa allowed the continent to describe the introduction and spread of the SARS-CoV-2 variants in African countries during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A major scientific report from Africa featured in the journal Science shows how the large investment, collaboration and capacity building in genomic surveillance on the African continent enabled realtime public health response.

The report includes more than 300 authors from Africa and abroad who worked together to describe and analyse over 100 000 genomes and characterise SARS-CoV-2 variants in real time. This was the largest consortium of African scientists and public health institutions ever to work together to support data-driven Covid-19 response in Africa.

Guest 1: Terence Pokane Leluma, Founder of Makhamisa Foods

Guest 2: Ms Uyanda Mbuli, CEO of Uyanda Mbuli Corporation AND Entertainment Entrepreneur 

A partnership between, UYANDA MBULI CORPORATION and MAKHAMISA FOOD has seen the creation of a 100% Black Owned venture into agri-business that involves food processing, packaging and distribution. The joint venture is called MAKHAMISA YANDA and not only does it promise to bring tickles to the palate, to change the African status quo in terms of food security, food development, developing different dishes and cuisines, and also packaging African indigenous knowledge systems that are actually owned by or embedded in our communities, and in different communities across Africa.

Guest: Christo Snyman, President for International Association of Financial Crime Investigators (IAFCI) in SA and Director at Mazars - Forensic Services 

Last month, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI/Hawks) announced that they are currently probing at least 22,477 cases with a combined monetary value of about R1.5 trillion.

The cases include cash-in-transit robberies; theft of fuel from Transnet pipelines; drug and human trafficking, and corruption. They also include commercial crime, organised crime, cybercrime and money laundering, and inchoate offences such as conspiracy to commit crime and incitement to commit crime.

This evening, we shine the spotlight on Financial Crime investigations in South Africa and our country’s ability to thoroughly investigate such crimes. We'll also look at the impact of collaborations when carrying out these investigations and how often the stolen funds get recovered. With South Africa having introduced various efforts to curb financial crimes, why are we seeing such slow progress? Or is it really a craft to hide stolen money from authorities?

Guest:  Imtiaz Syed, Activist and community leader

Guest: Dr. Alude Mahali, Chief Research Specialist in the Inclusive Economic Development research division at the HSRC (Human Sciences Research Council)

Guest: Tshamano Makhadi, Treasurer General at SANEF

Guest: Prof. Amir Patel, Associate Professor, University of Cape Town, Department of Engineering Recently awarded the Research Excellence Award for Emerging Researchers for his outstanding research performance in the field of Robotics at the National Research Foundation A-rated researchers awards

Guest: Dr Jenny Coetzee, Principal Investigator in the Perinatal HIV Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand

Guest: Prof. Patrick Bond Political economist, political ecologist and scholar of social mobilisation