Ryan Cummings is a security and risk analyst, and Director of the Cape Town based risk management consultancy Signal Risk. A graduate in International Relations from the University of Cape Town, Ryan has established a reputation as an international expert on Islamic Groups operating across northern Africa.

We spoke about his growing up in a single-parent home, his path to security studies, the damaging combination of oppressive democracies and violent non-state players across the region, and the state of the South African intelligence services, among other things

"South African security services do seem to be complacent and one gets the impression that during this transition period our intelligence resources have been absorbed in domestic politics which makes me wonder how many resources are given to following outside threats."

Albie Sachs was blown up by apartheid security forces in Maputo in 1988. He survived solitary confinement, exile and the attack to become one of the architects of the South African constitution, and a Constitutional Court judge.

We spoke about the debate around including a bill of rights in the new constitution, his meeting with the person who planned his assassination, and the concept of soft vengeance.

"Surviving the attack transformed my life. I had a sense of rejuvenation. Learning to write gave me sense of excitement. I wanted to show my mum. The physical recovery went with the sense of joy and elation that as I healed my country would heal."

MXO is a Johannesburg-based singer and songwriter who burst onto the local music scene in 2004. Since then he has released a number of albums and performed around the world. He has worked and performed with the likes of Hugh Masekela, John Legend, Mandoza and Maxwell. He is currently putting the finishing touches to his latest album Conscious Reflections that is due for release in June 2018.

In our discussion we chat about sticking to your guns, the ups and downs of fame and how appearing on South African Survivor gave him the space to turn his life around.

This episode also includes two tracks from the upcoming album, Ingelosi and Carpe Diem.

Dr Lulu Gwa Gwa is the CEO of Lereko Investments. She has a PhD in Town Planning from University College London and is a former Deputy Director  -General of Public Works for both the Mandela and Mbeki governments. She was also CEO of the Independent Development Trust (IDT).

Our discussion covers a broad range of issues including the ongoing legacy of apartheid spatial planning, the importance of rural development, the lack of transformation in business and the challenges facing young women professionals when they enter the work space.

This is the tenth episode of Voices from SA. Yippee. My guest this week is writer, performer and director Jefferson Tshabalala. He is part of the new wave of South African theatre.

Tshabalala creates works across varied fields, ranging from orthodox drama to hip-hop theatre, and was nominated at the 2014 Naledi Theatre Awards for the Best Emerging Voice award. In 2015 his production of the play “Secret Ballot” was nominated at the Naledi Awards for Best Ensemble production.

We spoke about how exposure to theatre performance in his first week on campus changed his whole creative direction. We also chatted about his relationship to directing, acting and performing and how these different roles suite him at different times. I asked him about the nature and importance of collaboration and also the freedom that his alter egos-POET O-type, JBobs Live and J Bama Klot give him on stage.

My guest this week is South African jazz pianist and composer Paul Hanmer. Over the years he  has worked with some of the giants of South African music including Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela. We speak about his growing up in Cape Town, his formative musical years playing in cover bands, the search for his own musical identity and the joy of playing his own music.  We also speak about collaboration and the creative process. Paul gives a great view on what it is like to work as a professional musician.

This is a slightly longer episode as Paul plays one of his compositions at the end of our discussion.

This week my guest is the artist Thenjiwe Nkosi. She was born in the USA to a South African father and an American mother. The family moved back to South Africa in 1992. Our discussion covers a number of topics including identity and race, migration, creativity and commercialism and individuality vs collaboration. She tells a nice story about enlisting some skate punks in Bayreuth into one of her video projects.

"I would love to be making quite radical works that incites action or are in themselves action. That is something that I have not yet figured out. That is an expectation that I have of myself to be radical in my practice."

Thenjiwe is exhibiting here Heroes series, which we touch on during our discussion, in the Reading Room at the Goethe Institute from 5April to 22 June.

Dipak Patel is a former MK commander, a former Director-General in the Department of Transport and now an investor and social entrepreneur who spends his time between Johannesburg and New York.

In this episode Dipak talks about growing up in Durban, joining the armed struggle at the age of eighteen and finding himself as part of the negotiations process that enabled the transition to democracy at the age of twenty-seven.

The interview took place before the ANC elective conference in December 2017 but contains interesting reflections on the current state of the ANC and the possibility of recovering from the Zuma years.

In the sixth episode of Voices from SA, host Nicholas Claude speaks to lifelong activist Kumi Naidoo, shortly before his appointment as Head of Amnesty International.

During the course of a wide-ranging discussion Kumi speaks passionately about the role that activism can play in changing legislation and transforming society. “Optimism of action is the best antidote for the terrible analysis of where the world is. I refuse to accept that the world we live in is the best that humanity can create for itself.”

Mpofu-Walsh is an academic, author, activist and rapper who released his book Democracy and Delusion, accompanied by a rap album, towards the end of 2017.

In the wide-ranging interview with host Nicholas Claude, Mpofu-Walsh talks about the impact of the Fees Must Fall movement, land reform, gender violence and the state of politics in South Africa.

He is currently busy with a D.Phil. in International Relations from Oxford University which looks at global nuclear weapon-free zones.