Dr. Mbete lectures in politics at the University of Pretoria. She is also a Democracy Works Fellow.

The subject of her Doctorate is South Africa's  first two terms on the UN Security Council in2007/8 and 2011/12.

So we chatted quite a bit about South Africa on the global and regional stages, but also touched on the state of our parliament, the government and the parliamentary parties as we approach the May 8 general election.

Sithembile points out the weakness of the political parties but acknowledges that the checks and balances in our parliamentary system do work. At the same time she says our democratic structures should be supported by community activism, a strong civil society and a functioning state bureaucracy.

My guest this week is Toby Shapshak the publisher and editor-in-chief of of Stuff magazine in South Africa. He is a journalist in his own right, a commentator on the digital economy and a proper tech geek.

Toby and I met many years ago on an ill-fated visit to the launch of the Gautrain back in 2010 and have bumped into each other intermittently since then.

We got into quite lengthy discussion about internet privacy and how to survive in this age of surveillance capitalism. Toby had some great tips on how to protect your privacy and data online.

He also on lighter note gave us some of his highlights from the recent Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona recently. He chatted about some of his favourite gadgets and the latest developments in 5G technology.

Visit Stuff online here.

The Toby Shapshak Show is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Steve Collins is an old friend of mine. We met at the University of Natal in Durban back in the mid-1980's. Steve was a student activist and member of the End Conscription Campaign. He went on to work for IDASA (Institute for Democratic Alternatives in South Africa) and then was a mediator for the IEC (Electoral Commission of South Africa)  for the 1994 elections.

We discussed his path into the environmental space and chatted about some of the projects he has been involved in across the region that allowed us to discuss the Food Energy Water Nexus among other things. We got a sense of the fragile nature of our environment and the efforts required to ensure our survival.

Find out more about the African Safari Foundation here.

Drawdown has 100 solutions to reverse global warming.

Sam Mkokeli started his career in journalism as a student sending photos to the Daily Dispatch in East London. An inability to do technical drawing having put paid to his engineering studies.

Over the last 20 years Sam has worked in a number of newsrooms culminating in a recent three-year stint as politics reporter for Bloomberg where he covered events in South Africa and across the continent.

Sam is also sits on the SANEF sub-committee on media freedom.

We chatted about his early days in journalism, the challenges facing journalists and the media industry in general as well as the South African political landscape and how we might test and strengthen our democracy.

He feels the ANC has lost its way and that we face some difficult decades in recovering from the impact of not only the last decade of mismanagement, abut the decades of colonialism and apartheid that preceded the Zuma years.

Pippa Green has worked as a journalist since 1982 when she joined The Argus newspaper in Cape Town.

Over the years she has worked for a number of news organizations across a variety of media. She has a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University, has won numerous awards and is a founding member of the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF)

We chatted about some of her formative experiences in the Cape, including covering the release of Nelson Mandela, the essence and ethics of journalism, the current state of the media industry in South Africa and some of the pressures faced by journalists, and journalism as a whole, in South Africa today.

Lwando Xaso is a constitutional lawyer and a writer. She has clerked at the Constitutional Court and is a trustee of the Constitutional Court Trust. She is also the convener of the Including Society discussions.

Lwando recently left private practice to join the project team that is building a museum to the South African constitution and the history of constitutionalism in this country. The museum will sit opposite the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg.

We chatted about the state of the nation, about her early and ongoing confrontations with racism and gender bias and how we should use identity politics as a positive thing.

We did also discuss the efforts to transform the legal profession in south Africa.

You can find out more about Constitution Hill here.

Milisuthando Bongela only started dealing with apartheid once it was over. She was about 8 years old.

Today she has reached a stage of spiritual calmness and confidence that enables her to confront racism and sexism without fear or anger.

We had a great discussion and she said some powerful things about being black, the legacy of race in our intimate spaces and the complexity of forgiveness and reconciliation in a country filled with rage

Milisuthando and her friend, the writer and teacher Athambile Masola launch a ten-part podcast on Kaya FM on February 21 called Umoya: On African Spirituality. in the show they interview cultural activists, artists, politicians and healers on the spiritual aspects of their work.

Find out more at KayaFM.

I met Larry at a hangout in Orlando East in Soweto one Saturday afternoon. This was a few years ago and he had just started his t-shirt printing business.

Four years in, and while you get a sense things are not easy, Larry is having fun and making a go of something he loves.

We chatted a little about his childhood and his absent father. Also the great story about how he got his nickname "Barman".

He spoke about the ups and downs of building a business and some of the lessons he has learnt along the way. He also mentioned his concerns about the youth, the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, as well as the importance of children to be curious and have a hobby.

Kieron is an interdisciplinary/multi-disciplinary performance artist and a teacher at City Varsity in central Johannesburg.

Kieron is not tied down by labels, media or any of societies social or sexual conventions. Kieron wants to get in your face.

We spoke about his approach to teaching where he wants students to explore unheard of narratives and recognise their potential and success in relation to their communities, not international acclaim.

He uses his body and the bodies of others,as well as music and film to express idea that conventional works do not allow.

Kieron will perform at the Dance Umbrella Africa March 31-April 7.

Read more about Kieron here

Yondela Silimela fell into town and regional planning by accident. Since studying at ML Sultan College in Durban in the early 1990's she has forged a career as a development planner with an interest in cities, city governance and the built environment.

After stints at the City of Johannesburg where she was head of the development planning department, the Public Investment Corporation where she worked in the property investment department and, Yondela works as a consultant and is involved in development projects across the sub-continent.

We chatted about a range of issues including the politics of access to housing, transport and employment, the role of government as housing regulator and provider and the role of private property developers in resolving the housing crisis in South Africa