The Coal-Face with Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.

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Water was highlighted as the world's number-one commodity at this week's Mining Indaba.

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Criminal syndicates disrupting railway lines have been positively identified, this week's Coal Conference heard.

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Stopping noise-induced hearing loss is now the top health priority of South Africa's mining industry.

Africa Check launched an initiative to check whether South Africa's president has kept his word on infrastructure, development and education, during his state of the nation address. It says Ramaphosa made seven promises on the power utility Eskom, state logistics company Transnet, road infrastructure, digital migration and more. Sakina Kamwendo spoke to Africa Check Deputy-Chief Editor Cayley Clifford

The National Empowerment Fund says the government needs to focus sharply on entrepreneurship and SME development. Sakina Kamwendo spoke to Zama Khanyile, Divisional Executive for Venture Capital and Corporate Finance at the NEF...

The Economic Freedom Fighters will launch its much anticipated National Manifesto tomorrow in Durban, KwaZulu Natal. Last night, all EFF members of Parliament boycotted the State of the Nation Address in parliament, following a ruling by the Western Cape High Court which dismissed an application by the party's six MPs including leader Julius Malema, to have their suspension interdicted. Sakina Kamwendo spoke to  EFF national spokesperson Sinawo Tambo

Speaker of Parliament, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has encouraged South Africans to actively engage with this year's State Of The Nation Address proceedings. In the build up to the address by President Cyril Ramaphosa, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, Julius Malema said he was not expecting much from President Cyril Ramaphosa's SONA. Malema was addressing students in Pietermaritzburg ahead of the party's manifesto launch this weekend in Durban. On Thursday, the party confirmed it will challenge the Western Cape High Court's decision to suspend 6 of its members of parliament, including Malema, from participating in this year's SONA. Sakina Kamwendo spoke to a number guests ahead of the address including, Senior Economist at the Alternative Information & Development Centre, Dr. Dick Forslund and Political Analyst, Asanda Ngoasheng.

South Africa currently has about R4.5 billion in unclaimed assets, and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is seeking to launch a nationwide initiative to match claimants with their unclaimed monies. Following the issuance of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority's (FSCA) discussion paper in 2022, the pressing issue of unclaimed financial assets in South Africa was brought to the fore. This includes unclaimed dividends among South African investors. According to a recent discussion paper, FSCA, there is an estimated R88.56 billion worth of unclaimed assets across the financial sector. Sakina Kamwendo spoke to Head of the Supervisory Frames Department at Financial Sector Conduct Authority, Loraine van Deventer.

The inventor of the Please Call Me service, Nkosana Makate says he is relived that the Supreme Court of Appeals has ordered certain costs to be paid out by cellular network giant Vodacom over the prolonged court impasse between the two parties. Yesterday, the SCA ordered Vodacom to make a new offer to Makate over his creation of the Please Call Me Service. Initially, Vodacom offered Makate a payout of 47 Million rands, however, his legal team rejected this offer and calculated that based on a five percent share of an estimated 205-Billion rand in revenue over 18 years, his new share could equate to an estimated 20-Billion rand in compensation, with interest. Earlier, Sakina Kamwendo caught up with Makate and he started by explaining the cost factor against Vodacom. 

Electricity Minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says nearly three-thousand megawatts that will be recovered to the Eskom grid by the end of this year, easing the levels of blackouts. Ramokgopa was conducting an oversight visit at Koeberg Nuclear Power Stattion in Cape Town. He anticipates that Eskom will not raise to higher levels the stages of load shedding. SABC reporter, Thandiswa Mawu has more.

Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts has received an update from the Department of Higher Education regarding investigations into the National Skills Fund investigation and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. The forensic investigation was commissioned at the committee's insistence and direction, following disclaimer audit opinions from the Auditor-General for the 2019 / 2020 and the 2020/2021 financial years. Sakina Kamwendo spoke to SABC reporter in Parliament, Lulama Matya.

The Democratic Alliance has delivered its alternative State of the Nation Address, with party leader John Steenhuisen making a presentation in Sandton, Johannesburg. Steenhuisen accused President Ramaphosa of publicly refusing to act against the Deputy President Paul Mashatile, despite alarming evidence of systemic corruption.