The Weekend View

The Technolife Wise Foundation recently launched the "Active Digital Wellness" initiative in collaboration with the Roosevelt High School in Johannesburg. The goal of the programme is to encourage parents to say yes to wait till Grade 8 or the age of 14 before giving children access to the internet and social media via a smartphone.  Dr Marlena Kruger, digital wellness coach and founder of the Technolife Wise Foundation,  says Roosevelt High School has had a no cell phone policy during school hours since 2016 and the outcomes have been an eye-opener: They have seen a decrease in, amongst others, cyber bullying, and an increase in academic performance and children's social development. 

As heavy fighting between government forces and the M23 rebels escalated in Eastern DRC this week, attempts to restore peace will resume tomorrow in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. Former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is the facilitator of the East African Community-led talks, visited Goma after talks in the Congolese  capital Kinshasa on Monday. He also spoke to Rwandan leader Paul Kagame on the need for M23 rebels to cease fire and withdraw from captured territories. The United Nations has reported that the latest fighting has so far displaced over 200 000 people. To discuss this we are joined on the line by Ras Advocate Sipho Mantula, Researcher at the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs 

The Sports for Social Change Network Africa (SSCNA) has officially launched the inaugural SSCN Africa Awards set to be held this Wednesday, 23rd November, here at the SABC in Johannesburg. The awards are aimed at celebrating the achievements of individuals and organisations who have made strides toward positive social impact throughout Africa. Under the theme 'Leading like Mandela', the awards ceremony will honour the achievements of various social role players across the continent through sports. We spoke to Allan Williams, Network Director at the Sports for Social Change Network Africa.

The opening ceremony of the 2022 FIFA World Cup will take place in Doha today, ahead of the opening Group A match between hosts Qatar and Ecuador at 6pm SA time. The opening ceremony is scheduled to begin at 4pm SA time. Although South Africa failed to qualify for the tournament, local soccer fans will join millions others around the world for the month long football festival. The final will take place a week before Christmas on Sunday 18th December. Controversies that have dogged the tournament and the host nation, like the ban of beer sales at stadiums, the welfare of migrant workers and the rights of the LGBTQi community, have somewhat dampened the cheery spirit.

FIFA president, Gianni Infantino has accused the World Cup critics of hypocrisy during a news conference on the eve of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Infantino's comments came a day before the World Cup begins, in a country which has been criticised over a range of issues since it was named as host of the tournament, 12 years ago, including allegations of human rights violations and treatment of migrant workers. We spoke to Janet Whitton - SAFM Sports Anchor, Mathews Mpete - Daily Sun Sports Editor and Simphiwe Dludlu - Coach of SA's Under 17 Women's National Football Team

The American space agency - NASA - this week launched its most powerful ever rocket when it blasted off on its test flight on Wednesday, bringing closer it's ambition of putting astronauts back on the surface of the moon for the first time in 50 years. The space agency is aiming to send four astronauts around the Moon on the next flight, in 2024, and land humans there as early as 2025. The launch came days after NASA and South Africa's National Space Agency -SANSA - signed a partnership agreement that will establish a new communications facility that will help the Artemis missions return humans to the moon. We spoke to SANSA's Chief engineer, Eugene Avenant. 

The Pretoria High Court has ordered cinema company, Nu Metro, to pay the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) R5 million plus interest for defaulting on its licence fees. Samro has been in court with Nu Metro since 2018, following a breached settlement with the organisation.The amount that the company will be paying to Samro spans over three license years. Samro says it's quest and priority is to make a valuable and lasting contribution to the lives of its members. The organisation has vowed to use all means at its disposal including legal action.We spoke to Chola Makgamathe, General Manager of Legal Services at SAMRO.

A South African Police Service corruption 'whistle-blower' Patricia Morgan-Mashale says she fears for life and hasn't received any protection from government. This comes after she received death threats for  exposing  police corruption. The former Free State Saps administrative clerk, was reportedly dismissed from her job last year and has been in hiding since February. She says she survived two assassination attempts. Mashale says she is pleading for protection from government, after claiming she blew the whistle on massive corruption within the police service which would implicate a number of high-ranking officials. 

This brings to mind  Babita Deokaran, the chief director of financial accounting who was at the forefront of fighting and exposing alleged personal protective equipment (PPE) tender corruption in the Gauteng Health Department,  who was shot dead outside her Johannesburg home last year.  Are whistle blowers safe ? Should they do the honourable thing and report corruption or should they think about their families and lives? And where does that leave us as a nation that is trying to root out corruption? For this conversation we spoke to  Ben Theron, Executive Director of The Whistle Blower House

Make sure you are really saving this Black Friday. This a message and warning to South Africans who will be looking to save and make some rands over this year's black Friday shopping spree scheduled for Friday the 25th November. Like many countries around the world, South Africa has adopted the concept of Black Friday, with the annual sale being one of the highlights of the year from a retail perspective. But are South Africans really benefiting from Black Friday sales? Are there real savings to be had? A number of academics from educational institution, Mancosa,  believe that we should be very skeptical about the whole concept of Black Friday. We spoke to Dr Farai Nyika, an academic at Mancosa's Department of Economics.

Stellenbosch University’s SRC weighs in on the Khampepe report

Stellenbosch University management says the Khampepe report findings are a sobering moment for the university. Rector and vice-chancellor, Wim de Villers earlier THIS WEEK said that it is evident that black staff members and students do not feel welcome at the university despite deliberate transformation efforts to date, but they will need to work to harder at that. This comes after the release of the Khampepe Commission of Inquiry into racism allegations at Stellenbosch University by Judge Sisi Khampepe. However, immediately after its release, the Democratic Alliance denounced the report for 'scapegoating Afrikaans' and instructed its lawyers to take it on legal review. We spoke to  Masilo Silokazi, A member of Student Representative Council at Stellenbosch University

Thousands of matriculants who are currently writing their final exams will need to be on the lookout for bogus and unregistered colleges. These fake colleges will soon be promising desperate and unsuspecting matriculants all kinds of things as they recruit them. The department of higher education and training is warning students to ensure that they do due diligence and research on their institutions of choice after matric. For some students it is already too late. *Lerato Dube enrolled at what she thought was a genuine college earlier this year and she says she has started to see all the red flags that indicate that the institution may be unregistered or bogus. She says she is now scared to go back home this festive season as she is without any qualification. We spoke to **Lerato, who is using this pseudo name to protect her identity. We also spoke to Sam Zungu, Higher Education & Training department Deputy Director-General responsible for TVET colleges.