The Weekend View

The ANC NEC meeting which got off to a false start on Friday and was then re-scheduled for today has again been cancelled and is now expected to take place tomorrow; Monday. The ANC now says the National Working Committee will instead be meeting Today (Sunday) to discuss the Phala Phala  report. The working committee will then pass on its recommendations to the NEC for deliberation in Nasrec on Monday. The outcome of tomorrow's meeting is expected to guide the ANC caucus in Parliament when the report comes up for debate in the National Assembly. Opposition parties want the vote to be by secret ballot as they fear ANC MPs will want to shield their leader. The debate will be just 10 days before the ANC's elective conference is set to begin. To discuss the ramifications of all these scenarios We spoke to United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader, General Bantu Holomisa, ANC Stalwart,  Dr Mavuso Msimang and Professor Zwelinzima Ndevu, Director of the School of Public Leadership at Stellenbosch University

The business end of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar starts TODAY as the tournament enters its knockout stages. Despite the uncertainty around a winter World Cup and quetions around the host nation and human rights and LGBTQ+ issues, it has been an entertaining one on the pitch thus far. The first teams to play in the round of 16 later TODAY are the Netherlands and USA who play at 5 pm SA time followed by Argentina and Australia, who battle it out at 9 pm SA time. TOMORROW - Sunday-  France will face off with Poland  at 5pm and England clash with Senegal at 9 pm . We spoke to SAFM Sports anchor, Janet Whitton, 

Friday's  ANC NEC meeting at NASREC, south of Johannesburg, that was discussing the future of party President Cyril Ramaphosa was adjourned soon after sitting.  The meeting was expected to discuss the report on Phala Phala saga. The meeting will re-convene tomorrow ( Sunday). 
Our Senior political reporter Ntebo Mokobo, was at NASREC. We also spoke  Sizophila Mkhize; National Spokesperson for the ANC Youth League Task Team and David Ansara, Executive Director at the Centre for Risk Ananlysis

The world has been on a significant interest rate hike cycle in the last year and it doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon. South Africa has experienced six interest rate hikes in 2022 alone, with the last one hitting us by 75 basis points on the 24th of November. As a result, consumers view credit as the only option when it comes to purchasing  some big items, and this leaves them trapped in a never-ending debt cycle.  However,  there is apparently another solution to mitigate all this; Subscription. Subscription pricing does not change regardless of interest rate hikes or global conditions. To explain how this works, we spoke to Mishaan Ratan, Co-founder of the on-demand subscription platform, Rentoza.

South African Crime Statistics released by Minister Bheki Cele this week, reveal a concerning spike in violent crimes. Cele says the figures showed that aggression and violence were at worrying levels in the country.  Some opposition parties have renewed the call for the return of the death penalty to deal with violent crimes.  The African Transformation Movement (ATM) is one political party asking for the reintroduction of the death penalty. ATM president Vuyo Zungula has already written to President Cyril Ramaphosa asking him to invoke his powers in terms of Section 84 of the Constitution to introduce a referendum on the death penalty. We spoke to Dr. Sibusiso Mncwabe, ATM National Spokesperson joins us on the line and Robert Shivambu who is the spokesperson of Amnesty International (South Africa). 

On Thursday Eskom downgraded load shedding to stage 2 during the nights through this weekend courtesy of new diesel reserves making it to the power utility. Eskom received the major lifeline from PetroSA in the form of 50 million litres of diesel to keep its open-cycle gas turbines running. The turbines are meant to be run only during peak energy demand periods when the normal coal stations cannot handle the surplus. Some experts say as Eskom itself is in a financial bind, the latest diesel delivery means PetroSA is essentially now supplying diesel to Eskom on a credit basis.  We spoke to Energy expert, Prof. Mark Swilling from Stellenbosch University 

Yesterday marked the beginning of 16 Days of Activism of Activism for no Violence Against Women and Children. The annual campaign puts the spotlight on issues of femicide and gender-based violence that affect both women and children. It runs from the 25th of November to 10th December 2022. Despite the noble intentions of the campaign, over the years, South Africa has witnessed ever increasing levels of violence against women, girls, children, people with disabilities, elderly women, the LGBTQIA+ community and sex workers. Some of the most horrific violence against women and children has been committed during the course of the 16 days of the campaign. We spoke to SANAC Men's Sector Secretary General Dr. Mbulelo Dyasi 

The Life Esidimeni Family Committee will today host a healing session in Johannesburg for all bereaved family members to support each other and remember their loved ones. Many of the families have not been able to meet during COVID, so this is the first gathering in years. The Life Esidimeni tragedy involved the deaths of 144 people at psychiatric facilities in  Gauteng from causes including starvation and neglect.The Pretoria High Court is currently holding an inquest probing criminal liability for the deaths of the mentally-ill patients following their removal from Life Esidemeni to ill equipped and unlicensed NGOs in 2016.  Christine Nxumalo is a member of the Esidimeni Bereaved Families Committee 

Government this week put out a notice urging all dog owners who no longer wish to keep their animals to take them to their local SPCA, animal welfare shelter, or private veterinarian. This as the debate on whether pitbulls should be banned continues to gain momentum as more children are getting mauled to death by the dogs. In the most recent case, a one-year-old child was on Wednesday mauled to death in a pit bull attack in the Eastern Cape, bringing the total of such attacks across the country to three in less than one week and at least five incidents in November. Keshvi Nair is Public Relations Officer for the National Council of SPCAs 

It is important to keep close track of your finances during the festive season.  With the Black Friday shopping frenzy in full swing, a lot can go wrong in a short space of time during the festive season hype. It may lead to tougher months ahead. South Africans have been complaining about the rising cost of living, interest rates, fuel and food prices. Naledi Totana, Compliance Officer at National Debt Advisors (NDA) joins us  to tip us how to make your rand stretch further this festive season...