The Weekend View

Property subletting is allegedly becoming popular in South Africa, largely because of aggressive interest rate increases and the high cost of living. Many people look for subtenants to help them pay their rent, while others seek to sublet if they're moving elsewhere and can't get out of their current lease. Subletting can be helpful if you're in need of extra cash, it is however not a decision to be taken lightly as it can present challenges. We spoke to Shafeeka Anthony, Marketing Manager of JustMoney

South Africans are NOT AT ALL happy with the recent revelation that  South African Cabinet Ministers and their deputies don't have to fork out a cent for water and electricity. Our ministers are also NOT at all affected by load-shedding because each of their households has received a generator to ensure that they are never in the dark. While South Africans were processing this information, they also found out that Cabinet ministers also now have an extra  one hundred thousand rand (R100 000) to spend on their luxury vehicles. Cabinet ministers and deputies can now spend up to R800,000 when purchasing a new car. This figure is up from R700,000 as specified in 2019 Ministerial Handbook.  This situation has riled many people throughout the week and to discuss it further we spoke to Advocate  Stefanie Fick, Executive Director, Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) AND  Thapelo Mohapi- General Secretary of Shack Dwellers' Movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo

Thousands of delegates are gathered in Beijing as China's governing Communist Party starts it's elective Congress today, set to usher in a historic third term in power for Xi Jinping. Xi has been described as  the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong in the 1970s. The decision to extend Xi's presidency comes after a two-term limit was abolished in 2018.  If elected Xi will lead the world's second-largest economy and one of its biggest military forces. Some analysts say he is likely to push China towards more economic growth and a more authoritarian political stance in a third five-year term. To discuss this we are joined on the line from Ethiopia by Prof. David Monyai, Director of the Centre for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg..

Businessman and diamond dealer Louis Liebenberg maintains that there is nothing wrong with him, as an ordinary citizen, giving former President Jacob Zuma five hundred thousand rand to foot his mounting legal bills. This follows Zuma's decision to privately prosecutes state Advocate Billy Downer and Journalist Karyn Maughan. Zuma has accused Downer of leaking his confidential medical records to Maughan - which the pair have denied. Our Senior Producer, Ronald Phiri, spoke to Liebenberg and started by asking him the reason for the donation and the nature of his relationship with former president Zuma. 

Eskom has signed land lease agreements with 4 independent power producers. These successful bidders are: HDF Energy South Africa, Red Rocket SA, Sola Group, and Mainstream Renewable Power Developments South Africa. Eskom says the companies will now do comprehensive feasibility studies to determine which technologies will be implemented at each site; wind, solar and battery storage. The exact generation capacity will only be known once the studies have been completed. We spoke to Energy commentator, Adil Nchabeleng 

Some of our South African Police officers live with the fear of being attacked by criminals at their police stations. One such police station is in Devon, east of Johannesburg, which has allegedly been locking it's gates at 6 o'clock every evening, for fear of being attacked by thugs. That fear, however, became a reality this week when three armed men, who pretended to be hijack victims, attacked the station and stole 10 firearms.

Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe confirmed that the Employee Health and Wellness (EHW) unit had been deployed to the station to provide psycho-social services to affected officers.

The Devon police robbery is however not an isolated incident.  A group of heavily armed robbers stormed Malamulele police station in Limpopo in November 2021 and made off with firearms and ammunition. Just last month, Grootvlei police station, near the small Mpumalanga mining town of Balfour, was also robbed of firearms. There have been similar reported incidents in the Western Cape and other provinces. To delve deeper into this disturbing issue, which is the subject of our Sunday Morning Discussion, we spoke to  by Richard Mamabolo, spokesperson for The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) AND Professor Hendrik Lochner, Crime and Police Expert with Unisa's Department of Police Practices

The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) and the United National Transport Union (UNTU) say efforts to establish picketing rules with Transnet's management for their planned national strike TOMORROW  have been unsuccessful.  Unions say Transnet had contravened the requirements of the Labour Relations Act by refusing to sign the picketing rules. The unions says Transnet's refusal is unjustified considering the fact that the Labour Court dismissed Transnet's urgent interdict application to have the strike declared unlawful and unprotected.

Meanwhile,  Electricity generation in Mpumalanga province risks being severely affected this coming week as labour union Satawu joins the industrial action by workers in the transport sector starting tomorrow. The Satawu strike in Mpumalanga is expected to disrupt the transportation of coal to Eskom power stations. We spoke to by Solomon Mahlangu, Satawu's Provincial Secretary in Mpumalanga.

African Union-led peace talks that were expected to start in South Africa today to try to end a two-year-old conflict in northern Ethiopia's Tigray region have reportedly been delayed for logistical reasons.  Ethiopia's government and Tigray forces had earlier this week accepted the AU's invitation to talks in South Africa, which would be the first formal negotiations between the two sides since war broke out in November 2020. The mediators in the talks are the African Union's chief mediator, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, supported by former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta and former South African deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.  We spoke to Peter Fabricius, an independent journalist and analyst on foreign policy issues, and is  closely monitoring this story 

Vote counting is set to begin this morning  in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho following YESTERDAY's parliamentary elections.  More than 50 political parties are vying for a chance to govern. In reality, though it's a race between four major parties including the newly launched party Revolution for Prosperity (RFP). This is the first election the leaders of the four parties are contesting in, so whoever wins, Lesotho will have an untested prime minister. Some hope a new and untainted leader will help change the country's political fortunes. We spoke to the head of the African Union Election Observer Mission to Lesotho, Dr Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe, who is also Former Vice President of Uganda .

Spokesperson of Jacob Zuma Foundation Mzwanele Manyi AND DA's shadow Minister of Correctional Services Jahno Engelbrecht react to former president Jacob Zuma's end of medical parole.