I met Frank Meintjies briefly a few times many years ago in Durban in the mid to late 1980’s as far as we can put it together. He was working, as a communications officer for Diakonia.  He joined trade union federation COSATU around the same time.

Today Frank is a social activist and community organiser, a traveler and a poet. We spoke via Skype late last year when he was in Vietnam as part of a journey through SE Asia where he is looking for the radical Ubuntu that connects the marginalised around the world.

We lost the feed a few times and the sound quality is a bit iffy but it worked out okay. I suggest you wear headphones or listen in the car.

We spoke about his travels, his childhood in Pietermaritzburg and his work as an organiser and activist over the years including his brushes with the security services in those dark days.

We spend some time chatting about the current state of the trade union movement in SA and Frank reflects on how the movement can become more relevant in the age of populism and declining membership.

You can follow Frank's travels here

The photo is from Frank's blog page.

This is the last in the end of year series of repeats from Voices from SA. I interviewed Nozipho a few months ago. She is a bundle of energy and enthusiasm.

Nozipho's earliest memories are her wrapped on her mother's back as her family ran for its life as houses burnt all around them during the IFP/ANC conflict around Pietermaritzburg in the late 1980's.

Our discussion traced her life from living in the family car in a forest to facilitating events for the World Bank. It is an inspiring and emotional journey.

This is the third episode in a series of holiday season repeats. I first interviewed Dipak shortly before the ANC conference of December 2017 that led to Cyril Ramaphosa being appointed as ANC Secretary-General and subsequently the President of South Africa, replacing Jacob Zuma.

Since then the government has made various efforts to rehabilitate itself, and various state-owned enterprises blighted by corruption and mismanagement.

Earlier this year Dipak was appointed as Special Advisor to Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan to assist in rolling-back the impact of state capture.

This is the second episode of four end of year reruns. Normal service will be resumed January 16 2019.

I chatted to Prof. Hall a few months ago. Since our discussion she was appointed to an advisory panel on land reform by President Ramaphosa. There have also been countywide public forums to discuss various aspects of land redistribution and restitution.

In the light of the imminent publication of the new Expropriation Bill which was accepted by cabinet recently I thought it would be interesting to revisit our chat where Prof. Hall argues that there is no need to change the constitution in order to facilitate a land restitution programme in South Africa

I will be away for the next few weeks and will be playing some of my favorite episodes from 2018.

My chat with Sisonke was the first episode of Voices from SA I published. I will always appreciate the fact that she took time from her hectic schedule to speak to me. Since that first episode she has published a new book called "The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela"

In this episode we chatted about growing up in exile, her memoir "Always Another Country" and her perceptions of the state of the ANC, and the country in general.

Sisa Ntshona was appointed CEO of SA Tourism two years ago and he is a man with a mission.

After a number of years in the banking sector Sisa was looking for a new challenge, and a way to contribute to the growth and success of South Africa.

Sisa grew up in Alice in the Eastern Cape and then studied accounting at UCT in the early 1990,s.

We chatted about his career in banking and his eventual disillusionment with the industry that led to his new path.

Sisa and I chatted about the challenges and opportunities of tourism in South Africa, from overcoming historical legacies locally, to changing negative perceptions internationally.

I have been aware of Felix Laband for many years, and we may well have been in the same bar or club at one time or another over the years, but we only met and spoke for the first time a few months ago.

We chatted about his musical journey from teenage punk to dance music pioneer, how technology has impacted his creative processes over the years and his return to art.

He is more than four months sober now and we spoke about his struggles with addiction over the decades.

Felix, together with his friend and mentor the writer and cultural flaneur Jay Savage are artists in residence at NIROX outside Johannesburg from December 2-18. The pair will be exhibiting the fruits of their labour at NIROX on December 15

Melsusi Tshabala gained renown in South Africa for his recently published book "Melusi's Everyday Zulu" He is the founder of the advertising agency Studio 214.

Melusi grew up in Soweto with his mum. He feels companies have an important part in supporting black entrepreneurs. We chatted about a number of things including patriarchy, the state of politics in South Africa and the ongoing socioeconomic disparity in the country.

"Lets get along is papering over the cracks. Getting along serves the wealthy. We cannot get along then I go back to my shack, and you go to your mansion."

Check out Melusi's Everyday Zulu on facebook

Keval Harie grew up in a conservative Hindu household outside Johannesburg. A lawyer by training, he has been the director of GALA for the last two years.

We chatted about his childhood and the loneliness of struggling with his sexual identity, and his grappling with the consequences of coming out to his family and friends.

We chatted about a number of issues relating to the LGBTQ community in South Africa including what Keval refers to as the "patriarchy of homosexuality" in South Africa and the racism associated with this.

Forced removals came up a few times in our discussion, both in relation to his parents history, and the experiences of the gay community in District Six in Cape Town, so we touched in this as well in the context of the current debate on land reform.

To contact GALA go here.

Click here to find out more information about The Kewpie Project.

I met Letsika by accident at the Living Room in downtown Johannesburg one sunny Sunday afternoon a few years back. When I found out he was a pilot I badgered him for hours that day for stories and experiences of being a pilot..

He has been flying for SAA for fourteen years and in our discussion we track his path as a child watching crop-dusters flying over the township in Bethlehem in the Free State, to sitting in the right-hand set of an Airbus A340-600.

While we he did share few tales from the cockpit, from the stress of his pilot training in Australia to dealing with the odd bird strike, we also discussed more serious issues around the lack of transformation at SAA, and the fact that the uncertain future of the airline might force him to seek greener and more stable pastures abroad.