Voices from SA: Recent Episodes
Voices from SA
Discussions with people working in the arts,business, academia and civil society in South Africa. Listen to new perspectives on issues of race, gender and transformation.
The host, Nicholas Claude, is a freelance writer based in Johannesburg. He was born in London, raised in Durban and returned to South Africa in 2010 after living in Stockholm for thirteen years.
To support the podcast go to https://www.patreon.com/voicesfromsa
Edgar Pieterse is the director of the African Centre for Cities (ACC) based at the University of Cape Town. He is an urbanist trying to make sense of the sociology, politics, geography and economics of the modern African city.
We discussed the often difficult relationship between city governments and national governments, and the ongoing struggle for policy and financial control o the trajectory of cities across sub Saharan Africa.
Edgar feels it is necessary for the social, political and economic debate at all levels to be re-imagined if cities are to fulfill their true potential as hubs of national economic growth and social transformation.
The bulk of our discussion focused on the Integration Syndicate project hosted by the ACC in Cape Town. The project was an attempt to encourage a different kind of thinking about the issues of urbanisation in Cape Town and which "explores the obstacles and solutions to social-spatial integration in the Cape Town metropolitan region." The five provocations that came out of the sessions, and which we touch on, are relevant to many large cities on the continent.
Download The Integration Syndicate book here.
Edgar also had some fascinating and imaginative things to say about the South African taxi industry and how the foundations for an integrated transport infrastructure already exist.
At the heart of our discussion was the shadow the generational impact of apartheid planning casts over our cities at so many levels and that require an imaginative and multidimensional response, beyond a simple residential mix, to resolve.
Goapie Kabe grew up in Soweto, Johannesburg. A school outing to a live recording of a TV show planted a seed that eventually led her to changing plans and studying film instead of engineering. Over the last ten years she has developed into one of South Africa's leading cinematographers.
We had a great chat about the art of film-making, the role of the cinematographer in interpreting a director's vision, the importance of pre-production, her love of shooting hand-held, and always having a plan, or three when on set.
We also spoke about light and framing, cameras and lenses. She loves technology and so we also spoke about the evolution of camera and lens technology.
And we spoke about her role as an inspiration to young black women wanting to break into the film industry.
Vedhant Maharaj is an architect and head of the Rebel Base Collective architecture and design studio.
I recorded this interview a few weeks back and it then got put on the back-burner as I wanted to have some guests on to look at the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on South Africa. Please listen to the recent episodes with Michael Sachs and Prof Shabir Mahdi.
Vedhant and I chatted about a number of things including how he became an architect, the state of South African architecture, the difficulty and challenges of changing the legacy of spatial apartheid and the policy landscape of that debate.
We also spoke about the evolving technology of sustainable materials and design, and touched on his masters thesis design project that confronted the challenge of infrastructural and ecological design in the political and religious context of modern India.
Prof Madhi has recently co-authored a number of articles about South Africa’s route out of lock down. So we chatted about how this might look. He emphasised the need for people to observe distancing protocols in order to slow the rate of corona virus infection.
We chatted about the changing understanding of how corona virus acts on people. We also discussed the reasons behind the lock down and how some of these reason are no longer valid according to Shabir. Another issue we touched on is the spread of corona virus via asymptomatic carriers.
Shabir is also concerned that many decisions taken by government have not been based on science.
We also discussed the global bun-fight around developing a vaccine. It is clear that we will have to live with corona virus as best we can until a vaccine is available and this process might take years.
Read Shabir's latest article about South Africa's COVID-19 strategy here.
My guest this week is Michael Sachs, Adjunct Professor at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand .
He has recently co-authored a number of articles looking at the impact of COVID-19 on the South African economy. The articles have not only looked at the health response to the pandemic but also suggested paths to ending the lock down.
I spoke to Michael on May 11, 2020.
We had a far ranging discussion that looked at the economic impact of the pandemic on South Africa. There are tough times ahead for sure. We chatted about the role of a state that has been incapacitated over the last decade or more, we discussed the separate roles of the Treasury, the Department of Trade, Industry and Economic Development and the Reserve Bank in this crisis. Michael also suggested the government will be forced to take some tough decisions on its role and involvement in certain sectors of the economy such as aviation and energy.
Erik Esbjörnsson has been the Africa correspondent for the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter since 2010. He spent six years in Nairobi before moving to Johannesburg in 2016.
He had an inkling things were about to change in South Africa and Zimbabwe and wanted to be closer to the action.
Over the last decade he has traveled all over the continent. His most recent reporting, before the travel ban came into effect, was from Sudan. A few months ago he tracked down his great-grandparents home in Goma while on assignment in the DRC.
Of course we spent quite a bit of the podcast discussing a number of different aspects to the corona virus pandemic including the South African government's response, and the seeming breakdown in international solidarity that the pandemic has provoked.
We also chatted about Erik's childhood and his path to journalism, as well as some of the highlights of his decade recording events across Africa over the last decade.
She is a PhD student at the global change institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her PhD is looking at the potential for diversification and scale in small scale farming. Ndoni is also the founder and CEO of Black Women in Science registered non-profit organization which aims to deliver capacity development interventions that target young black women scientists and researchers.
In 2016 Ndoni was selected in the Top 200 Mail and Guardian Young South Africans under the education sector.
We had a good chat about the potential and possibilities of small scale farming vs large commercial farming. Ndoni pointed out some of the actions required to ensure the success of small scale farmers not only in producing a quality fruit or vegetable, but also support in access and use of technology, good governance and other aspects of building a successful business.
Ndoni has been working with satellite imaging technology and so we also chatted about the use of technology in agriculture as well as the need to link farmers not only to tech, but also to researchers like herself. She suggests there is a gap that needs to be bridged.
Dr Jackie King is an aquatic ecologist specialising in fresh water, that is to say riverine/inland water systems. She is a pioneer in her field and is the winner of the 2019 Stockholm Water Prize.
Back in the early 80’s Jackie she and some her colleagues developed a new field of study that today is called environmental flows. In essence this is a set of concepts and methods that provide stakeholders communities and governments with a set of scenarios when they plan the future of a river system.
We chatted about the need to find a balance between soft and hard engineering, and we talked about rivers. The Mekong River that runs through South-east Asia for example, and river systems such as the Okavango Delta and some of their incredible characteristics.
While she does not describe herself as an activist it is clear she is revered by many around the world for her efforts to harmonise the relationship between humans and the rivers that are so important to life on earth.
Read more about Dr King and her work here.
This is a special edition of Voices from SA. A virtual panel discussion arranged by Africa Podfest that I moderated entitled "Radio's Place in a Podcasting World.
Africa Podfest was due to take place in Nairobi 12-13 March but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This inspired the organisers to organise a range of panel discussions including this one.
"This session is about radio, which is where on demand audio came from. In light of the growing crossover between radio and podcasting, we envision a tipping point moment where there will be more interest and investment in podcasts than in radio. If podcasting is to fulfill its potential what are the practical considerations with regard to radio’s place in a growing African podcasting ecosystem which we need to address?"The panelists were:
Kameel Stanley, the senior producer of The City, a podcast from USA TODAY that explores how power works in urban American. Kameel is based in St Louis, Missouri
Shandukani Mulaudzi, Executive Producer of Podcasts, Children’s Radio Foundation
Paula Rogo, Co-founder of Africa Podfest and owner of Kali Media. She hosts her own podcast on women and entrepreneurship in E. Africa titled, “I Have No Idea What I’m Doing.”
Thanks to the Africa Podfest organisers Paula Rogo, Josephine Karianjahi and Melissa Mbugua for all their hard work. And thanks to the panelists for a great discussion
To watch all the virtual panel discussions from Africa Podfest go here.
Image care of Africa Podfest
Father Michael Lapsley was born in New Zealand, today he considers himself a citizen of the world. He moved to South Africa in 1973 to continue his training as a priest in an order of the Anglican Church. In 1976 he was sent into exile by the apartheid government. After joining the ANC he spent his time traveling the world mobilising faith communities against apartheid and ministering to South African's living in exile. Three months after the release of Nelson Mandela he was blown up by a letter bomb sent by the Civil Cooperation Bureau, an apartheid era death squad. He lost both hands and an eye in the attack.
We talked about his early work ministering to students in South Africa, his journey from pacifist to freedom fighter, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the work of his organisation the Institute for Healing of Memories he founded in 1998.
He spoke about how he has become a citizen of the world, his identity shaped by listening to the pain of the human family.
At the age of fourteen Obakeng won a scholarship to the prestigious Bishop's School in Cape Town and his life changed forever.
Since then he has studied for his A-levels at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg and later this year he begins a degree in economics in the USA. He is a busy young man.
Obakeng is an advocate for access to quality education and an ethical public service. He plans to go into government once he has finished his studies as he says he has seen too many friends let down one or another but non-functioning state institutions.
But what a cool young man. We chatted about the need to transform the way we think about education in South Africa, the way teach, and the role of schools in their communities.
He also spoke about the importance of involving parents education, and the importance of teachers who are inspiring and committed beyond simply teaching the curriculum.
Obakeng also spoke about the experience of private schools and how that process detached him in a way from his childhood friends and experience
We also spoke abut the the current political system in South Africa and the need for better civic and voter education in so people understand better how the political system works, and how they can make it work for them.
John Clarke has been working with the Xolobeni community and the Amadiba Crisis Committee for more than a decade in the fight against proposed mining operations by Australian mining company MRC.
In this episode John gives an update to the ongoing legal struggles being waged by the Xolobeni community. We also chatted about the state of the world, Jethro Tull and butterflies.
John is a man with a calling and it is inspiring to hear him talk about the possibilities of finding a balance between humans, nature and technology.
Become a patron and support the growth of Voices from SA here.
Zubeda is a founder, and the director of the Nisaa Institute for Women's Development. The organisation has the goal of "enabling women and children to live in a world free of violence." Nisaa was formed in April 1994. She is also the Executive Head of the National Shelter Movement.
In our discussion Zubeda gives a sobering and gritty picture of what it is like working on the front line of the struggle against gender and domestic violence. And we get a sense of the immense work, the thankless and extremely stressful work that is done by social workers, counselors and other members of this vast and unsung network of NPOs and NGOs that work in this field across South Africa.
What is startlingly clear is that the government response even at the most basic levels, and that of business for that matter, is sorely lacking.
Go here for more information about Nisaa
Bertha is an entrepreneur with interests in the Energy, Transport, Telecommunications and Management Consulting Sectors, delivering solutions and systems for utilities.
She is also the President of an NPO, "Women in Electricty and Power" that, quoting from her linkedin profile, aims “ to accelerate the participation of African Women Entrepreneurs in the full value chain of Power and Energy in Africa, and contribute towards addressing the continent’s energy poverty.”
We had a great discussion about the importance of mentors in the early stages of her career, affirmative action, some of the challenges facing entrepreneurs in South Africa, and her hopes and dreams for "Women in Electricity and Power", and her belief that women can transform this and many other sectors of the economy across the continent, given the right tools and support.
This is Frank's third appearance on the podcast. Frank is a former trade unionist and I turn to him when I am looking for a fresh perspective on things.
He is incredibly well connected and has some interesting things to say about South Africa and its prospects for the future.
We covered a number of areas including the state of the civil service, he reflected on his time working closely with now President Ramaphosa during the struggle against apartheid, the need for trade unions to become more engaged in the debate on economic policy, and some of the things he would do to turn the economy around. Infrastructure, housing and tourism were some of the sectors he suggested would benefit from state investment.
Richard is better know to South Africans as journalist at large for the Daily Maverick where he writes under nom de plume Trainspotter.
He is recognized for his acerbic wit, biting satire and razor sharp observations that have infuriated and amazed in equal measure over the last ten years.
I pitched the discussion as a look at the year ahead and what 2020 night hold for South Africa and its people. Turns out quite a lot. And according to Richard there is not a lot to look forward to. At least in the short term. He says South Africa is facing multiple existential threats.
We chatted about a number of things including the civil war racking the ANC, the parlous state of the main opposition parties, and the collapse of Eskom the state-owned power utility.
Our discussion did place South Africa in a global context of a post-truth, late-stage capitalism reality where norms of political behavior and activism are being re-written every day.
Richard also give some background to the documentary film he has directed together with Dianne Neille, Influence, which takes an in depth look at the rise and fall of PR firm Bell Pottinger. The film will premiere at the Sundance film Festival on January 23.
Read Richard on Helen Zille and the DA here.
I had Ebrahim on the podcast earlier this year in the build-up to the national elections. This time he is on the podcast to review some of the significant political events of 2019.
We initially had the idea of looking at the elections, the Zondo Commission and South Africa and the BRICS.
In the wake of a week of rolling blackouts, we were forced to discuss the state of the power utility ESKOM as a metaphor for the state of our politics. This, in turn, led to a discussion not only about corruption and mismanagement but also the role of consulting firms in the chaos at SOE's.
We spent some time as well discussing the broad failure of our political parties to work for the good for the nation and not their own welfare.
Ebrahim also gives his political highlight of the year.
He also does not have much hope that the Zondo Commission will lead to any high-level prosecutions.
Professor Jane Duncan is the Head of the Department of Journalism, Film and TV at the University of Johannesburg. She is one of the founders of the Media Policy and Democracy Project and the author of several books inluding "The Rise of the Securocrats" which looks at the growing role of the security services in government policy in South Africa. She has also written extensively about the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution. She is a skeptic.
We discussed a number of issues including the privatisation of public surveillance, surveillance capitalism in general and the gap between policy and technology.
Prof Duncan is also keen that South African plays a more active role in spreading our freedoms to the rest of the world to ensure an internet that is open and accessible to all the citizens of the world.
Read more about the Media Policy and Democracy Project here.
Contract for the Web
Nomanzi PalesaShongwe is a filmmaker and teacher. Her short film uNomalanga and the Witch won Best Short Film at the Durban International Film Festival (2015), and The Baobab Short Film Prize at Film Africa, UK (2016). It has nearly 500 00 views on youtube Nomanzi grew up in Johannesburg She abandoned her law studies to embark on a career in film. A short film submission led to being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and she completed a Masters of fine arts in film making at Temple University in Philadelphia. Most recently she was a lecturer at the Wits University Film School. She met Presidents Clinton and Obama as part of different South African delegations to the USA and we chatted about the changing US attitude to the USA over the years. We had a wide-ranging discussion that ranged from her high school years at Parktown Girls High School that straddled the early years of our democracy and the pressure to assimilate that is still being felt by many young professionals in particular today.
Nomanzi also spoke about the process and aesthetics film-making and what she wants to achieve in her films. As her bio puts it she "is interested in narratives that focus on the lives of women in the context of a feminist and decolonial African filmmaking".
Watch uNomalanga and the Witch here.
Muitheri Wahome has been working in the field of asset management since moving to South Africa from Kenya in 1995. She is currently writing a book about the history of asset management in South Africa.
After visiting SA for the first time after the elections in 1994, Muitheri moved to South Africa from Kenya in 1995 to study for an MBA. So she has experienced the ups and downs of post-apartheid South Africa as both a Kenyan and a "new" South African and has some interesting things to say about this experience.
She says it is good to take stock of how far we have come in a short time. We spoke a lot about how much has changed particularly within the field of asset management, but also that more needs to be done to transform business overall
Muitheri says businesses must create an environment conducive and supportive of transformation. She talks about the importance of enabling environment that looks beyond simply ticking boxes.
Rebone Masemola is an anthropologist, a digital marketer and strategist, an activist and the founder of Woke PROJECT.
Rebone established Woke PROJECT as a space for people to share intersectional narratives and share lived experiences.
She grew up with her grandparents in Limpopo before starting boarding school at the age of 12. She stumbled into anthropology be accident and we discussed how this pushed her into her career as a digital marketeer and brand strategist.
Rebone did a Ted Talk a few months ago entitled "Re-imagining radical protest" where she came out as an angry black woman using her anger as a weapon against toxic masculinity and the patriarchy.
We spent some time discussing gender violence, toxic masculinity and her activism. Like so many activists I have spoken to she is always questioning her path and the impact of her actions. But non-action is not a possibility for her.
Lebohang is the Managing Director of the Four Rivers Trading Consultancy and a research fellow at the progressive think tank, The Trade Collective.
Her areas of interest include the regional political economy, globalization and the movement of people, among other things. She is a feminist and an Africanist and this perspective guides her research and analysis.
We had a wide-ranging discussion that started with a look at the mid-term budget review that was presented last week and went on to look at the structure of the South African economy, the future of state-owned power utility Eskom and the need to resolve the land question.
Lebohang spoke about the right of all South Africans to relevant education and efficient medical care.
It was a fascinating discussion that gave me new perspectives on the challenges facing efforts to restructure our economy and our society as a whole.
Chippy was one of my early guests on the podcast. He had recently published his first book, How To Steal A City which looked at state capture and ANC corruption in Nelson Mandela Bay.
His new book, A House Divided turns his attention to the City of Cape Town. What started out as a look at the mismanagement by the Democratic Alliance (DA) of the water crisis that rocked the city a few years ago became an investigation into party funding, property development and land policy as well as an insight into tensions between city officials and politicians, particularly Patricia de Lille who was mayor at the time.
We chatted about some of these issues but also about the current state of the DA, some of the difficult choices facing the ANC, and why he supports President Ramaphosa.
Editing software is provided by Hindenburg Systems. Editing software made for radio.
Motlatsi embarked on a career as an academic, teaching philosophy, by chance, after flirting briefly with both medicine and law.
Born and raised in Johannesburg she has been teaching at UNISA for five years. Her areas of academic interest include Ubuntu, social movements and ethics among other things.
We chatted about a number of things including the challenges of teaching in a distance/open learning environment, the decolonisation of knowledge acquisition and teaching, as well as the philosophy of ubuntu and the dynamic nature of social movements.
Dr Joel Modiri is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Jurisprudence at the University of Pretoria.
His PhD thesis was entitled “The Jurisprudence of Steve Biko: A Study in Race, Law and Power in the ‘Afterlife’ of Colonial-apartheid”.
The central concern of his teaching and research relates to the development of a critical anti-racist post-conquest jurisprudence through which to contemplate possibilities for liberation, decolonisation and historical justice in South Africa and beyond.
We had a fascinating, and inspiring discussion that touched on critical race theory and the work of the American academic derrick bell and the concept of interest convergence, the legacy of the ANC in the failure of the post-apartheid project in South Africa and the relevance of Steve Biko today.
Joel is controversial in some circles for his outspoken critique of the South African constitution which ha says failed to take into consideration race, and as a consequence the black south African experience, in its drafting.
Read academic papers by Joel Modiri here.
Niren Tolsi is an award-winning South African journalist,a former Ruth First Fellow and an avid cricket fan. He covers issues around social justice, the constitution, politics, and violence. He is a co-founder of the now defunct The Con, and and associate editor/writer for New Frame.
Our discussion focuses on a number of themes that emerge from some of his recent writing including a series articles about South African cricketing great Hashim Amla, his 2018 Ruth First lecture that focused on the state of the South African media landscape, his ongoing work about the families of the miners massacred at Marikana in 2012, and a current project looking at politics and violence in kwaZulu-Natal.
So during our chat we spoke about the lack of transformation in sport, the media and business as well as the structure and nature of the South African media, and the state of the ANC through the violence in kwaZulu-Natal.
Read The Rainbow Beauty of Hashim Amla here.
The Meaning of Hashim Amla
Niren's Ruth First lecture.
Marikana
Prof Schutte is currently an associate professor of International Relations and Economics, and member of the post-graduate courses in World Political Economy and International Relations at the Federal University of Sao Paulo. He worked as an advisor to the Lula government(2004-2006), and has also been as a regional advisor to the World Bank among a host of diverse postings.
He was in Johannesburg a few weeks ago as the guest of the Mapongubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA). He gave the MISTRA annual lecture on 4 September entitled "The age of unreason and ignominy – can we judge the people’s judgement?"
We chatted about a range of things including Prof Schutte's view on the state of the global left, some of the challenges facing young democracies like ourselves, the changing nature of work, South Africa and the BRICS and the coming battle for the global economy.Read more about Prof Schutte here.
thought in the light of the current protests and public anger around the recurring issue of gender-based violence I would revisit an interview I published last year with Siya Jentile. He is the founder and president of Not in My name, an NGO aimed at mobilising society, and men in particular, against gender-based violence.
In looking for some information to share with you about the scale and scope of the problem we face regarding this national catastrophe I was shocked at the dearth of up to date national statistics on the rape assault and murder of women in South Africa. One I found is that a woman is killed every three hours in this country. According to The World Health Organization (WHO), 12.1 in every 100 000 women are victims of femicide in South Africa each year – a figure which is five times worse than the global average of 2.6.
Another depressing figure I came across is that there were at least 55 rape complaints against police officers were investigated in the six months between April to September 2018, according to the 2018/19 annual report of the police watchdog, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID).
Get engaged, involved and active.
Find out more about Sonke Gender Justice, POWA or contact Siya.
I met Mohamed back in the mid-1980's when he was an organiser for the Chemical and Industrial Workers Union. Mohamed grew up in Umzinto on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast among desperately poor sugarcane workers. He has devoted his life to the struggle for social change and economic transformation in South Africa.
Over the years he has worked in provincial government and in NGO's. I visited him in Cape Town where he lives with his family.
We had a wide-ranging chat about history and culture, the ongoing struggle for a more redistribute social and political model, and confronting race and racism in Cape Town.
Pooven Moodley grew up in Mandini, Northern KwaZulu-Natal in the shadows of a coal-powered paper mill. His lungs suffer from that childhood exposure to polluted air today.
We chat about his early activism fighting apartheid, he was on a Zululand Police hit list at one point, to his current work at Natural Justice.
Natural Justice ".. specialises in human rights and environmental law in Africa in pursuit of both social and environmental justice."
He touched on some of the recent community based campaigns Natural Justice has worked on, as well as a broader chat on the magnitude of the climate change catastrophe we are facing as a species. And the need for a drastic change int the way we live.
Read more about Natural Justice here.
Read about the Greenpeace Air Quality Report here.
Leonie Joubert studied journalism at Rhodes University after giving up art school at the same campus. She got into science writing after sailing to Marion Island on the South African research vessel SA Agulhas in 2003. Her first book Scorched, which looked at climate change in South Africa, was published in 2006.
Today she writes about science, climate change, urban development, food production and mental health. We touch on some of these issues during our conversation.
The main focus of her writing however is on climate change, the psychological impact of climate change on individuals and society and the emergence of psylocibin, a psychedelic, as a means to alleviate the impact of certain mental health issues such as depression. And perhaps even the anxiety bought about by climate change.
We chatted about her journey into science writing, her recent crisis of confidence and how she has rediscovered her strength of purpose, and the current global research into psylocibin.
Find out more about Leonie here.
Listen to the Psychonauts audio book episodes here.
Dianne Willman has worked for the National Prosecuting Authority for twenty years. She is also a Catholic priest.
Being neither religious nor particularity spiritual this episode was a bit of a departure for me. I have always been intrigued as to why somebody would believe in a God, and also interested in the role of the church as a source of comfort to an individual on the one hand, and an institution of conservatism and oppression on the other.
Dianne and I talked about faith, her calling to the priesthood, her community and wanting to create a "better" church.
We also discussed her work at the Asset Forfeiture Unit including training of similar units in countries across the continent.
Edgar Kasenene was born in Uganda, lived in Kenya and Swaziland as a child and studied for an MA in engineering in the UK. He has lived in South Africa for the last seven years.
He joined Retro Rabbit earlier this year after a number of years with Ericson, the Swedish telecommunications company.
Retro Rabbit is a software development company that wants to put itself at the centre of the technology revolution sweeping the continent.
We had a fascinating, and for me at times mind-blowing conversation about technology, data, connectivity, the future of work, 4IR, AI, curiosity and creativity. And some other stuff as well.
Edgar says we all have to shift our minds to adjust to the new reality that technology brings.
Read more about Retro Rabbit and the Rabbiteer program here.
Victor Stephanopoli is a citizen of the world having lived in a number of countries over the years. The son of French and German parents he has lived in Cape Town since 2014. He joined MzansiSat in 2016 and is currently COO of the company.
He is fluent in several languages and has a degree in film and video production from Ravensbourne University in London. He has interested in issues around the delivery of public health, and education.
MzansiSat is a satellite broadband company that is on a mission to provide stable and affordable satellite broadband to southern Africa. It is a bold vision and we talk about some of the technical aspects of this vision as well as the potential to impact people’s lives in a number of ways.
Victor also chats about the ease of doing business in South Africa, the importance of investing in one’s colleagues and how satellite broadband can impact education across the region.
Find out more about MzansiSat here.
Mavuso left South Africa in 1963 at the age of 21. He returned with his family in 1993.He helped build the ANC armed wing uMkhonto weSizwe from scratch. While in exile he underwent military training in the USSR, studied for a BSc , and worked for the United Nations World Food Program. He is the father of my first guest Sisonke Msimang
Recently he has become an outspoken critic of former President Jacob Zuma, and what he sees as the moral and ethical decline of the ANC.
We chatted about his decision to join the armed struggle and go for military training as well as some of the logistical and political constraints of operating in exile.
We mainly though chatted about the current state of the ANC and the massive effort that is required by all citizens to save our fledgling democracy.
Lwazi worked in the emergency room at Somerset West Hospital in the Western Cape for twelve years before taking the leap into film producing. She joined Spier films as an Executive Producer in 2018.
Her first foray into the industry was as producer of the groundbreaking and controversial film Of Good Report in 2013.
More recently Lwazi co-produced An Act of Defiance, a film about freedom fighter Braam Fischer.
She is also a founding member of Sisters Working in Film And Television (SWIFT) an organisation committed to empowering women working in the industry.
Lwazi is also a co- chairperson of The South African Screen Federation(SASFED)
We chatted about her journey from medicine into film, the role of a film producer, the challenges of making a movie and her desire to change the narrative and content of south African film.
Find out more about Sisters Working in Film & Television(SWIFT) here.
Watch ThatsNotOk
John has been an activist since his student days. A qualified social worker he has supported the Xolobeni community and the Amadiba Crisis Committee for nearly 20 years in the struggle against mining prospectors.
We chatted about some of the theological and philosophical principles that guide him in his life and in his work.
John spoke about his path from observer to activist in Xolobeni, and also some of the issues around land ownership, resources, traditional leadership and even state capture that are raised by the Xolobeni dispute
You can follow the Xolobeni story on John's YouTube channel.
Read Sam Sole's article about Xolobeni here.
John's book is entitled The Promise Of Justice
Mpho left a successful career in advertising to follow her dream of making a living out of food. She now runs the experiential catering company Food I Love You from the Victoria Yards complex in Johannesburg.
She advocates food simple, tasty food that looks and tastes fantastic.
We chatted about her early experiences in cooking, the inspiration she got from her mother and the importance of being a role-model and mentor to others.
Mpho is also involved in catering for the Including Society project that brings together a range of different people to discuss sensitive issues around transformation over a good meal.
While Food I Love You is primarily a catering company you can pop down to Victoria Yards on the first Sunday of every month and see what Mpho has on the menu. She assures me there are always plenty of vegan/veggie options available.
For more information about Food I love You, go here.
You can follow the Including Society project in Instagram.
Faith Pienaar left a promising career in wine-making to join Accountability Lab and work for, among other things, a better public service for all citizens of South Africa.
Faith is the Senior Programme Manager for Accountability Lab. The aim of Accountability Lab is to encourage good governance by highlighting the good work of public servants. This is done through the Accountability Icon campaign were community members nominate for recognition members of the public service who have preformed excellent work.
We chatted about Faith's journey into civil society and what she hoes to achieve through Accountability Lab. One of the aims is to build community-based accountability networks and support the leadership of these networks.
Find out more about Accountability Lab here.
Kevin Bloom is an author and journalist. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Maverick online news site where he has recently written a series of articles around the environment and issues of climate change and extreme weather.
In an article published a few days after we spoke Kevin wrote about a landmark case around air pollution in Mpumalanga province where President Ramaphosa is one of the respondents.
We chatted about some of the themes of his recent writing including the Xolobeni community in the Eastern Cape and its fight against the intrusion of an Australian mining company, the contradictions of government environmental policy, and the threat to Africa and South Africa of the environmental crisis we are facing.
Kevin also spoke about the myth of "clean" coal and the forces that prevent the emergence of cheap, sustainable energy.
Prof Engelbrecht is a climate modeller based at the GCI (Global Change Institute) at Wits University, Johannesburg. Prof Engelbrecht joined the institute earlier this year after a ten years at the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) where he was appointed chief researcher in 2016.
We chatted about the GCI, whose work “..addresses problems related to global change, climate change and sustainability in a multidisciplinary and trans disciplinary manner.”
But more importantly we look at his work in climate modelling particularly in the context of his work for the recent IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels.
During our chat Prof Engelbrecht warns of the impending dire consequences for life on the planet if we do not make a revolutionary change to the way we live, travel, produce and consume.
Cas Coovadia is the Managing Director of BASA, the Banking Association of South Africa. The BASA website states, "The role of The Banking Association is to facilitate the enablement of a conducive banking environment through robust engagement with government and relevant stakeholders."
We chatted about the role of BASA, the kind of roles banks can play in stimulating growth and alleviating poverty as well as issues around a proposed state-owned bank and suggestions to nationalise the reserve bank.
Cas has a long history in community and political activism dating back to his student days and then the United Democratic Front. He was detained a number of times in the 1980’s.
He also spoke on the need for a renewal of community-based activism across the country to protect our fragile society and the democratic project.
I met Brad Holmes about 15 years ago before Kajsa and I moved back to South Africa in 2010. He was already a well-established reprobate and a legend in the South African music scene. Brad is an evangelist for South African jazz in particular, and African music in general. And the sweetest guy you will meet.
Brad and later his wife-to-be Paige ran the renowned Melville jazz venue The Bassline from 1994-2003. The venue became a home to established musicians, and a nursery for a new generation of South African jazz musicians. Brad knows them all, and he tells a few stories about Hugh Masakela, Bheki Mseleku, Abdullah Ibrahim and Alan Kwela, among others, during our chat.
He is producing the Bassline Africa Day concert that takes place at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg on May 25.
We also spoke the dire state of live music in South Africa and the possible role government can play in promoting artists and venues alike.
This is a repeat of an episode published in early 2018. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances I was left without my planned guest for this week.
Ronnie is a founder member of the ANC's armed wing Umkhonto we sizwe and a former government minister.
Ronnie had an article published in the Daily Maverick online magazine on May 14 entitled "A curate's egg of an election" where he looks at some of the trends in the recent South African election around low voter turnout, low voter registration and the feeling of apathy that seems to have descended on the South African electorate.
Read the article here.
I thought it would be interesting to place this election in the context of the liberation struggle and get a sense from Ronnie of some of the challenges facing the ANC.
I spoke to Angelo two days before the South African general election. Angelo is a political analyst, writer and head of research at ASRI. Angelo has worked as an academic and broadcaster before taking up his current post.
We chatted about South Africa's political progress over the last 25 years, the state of the democratic project and some of the challenges facing our political structures such as the party list system and literacy. And the weakness of the main opposition parties and the incapacity of these parties to make significant inroads into the ANC support base despite years of government failure at many levels.
Angelo speaks about his hope in the youth while at the same time noting the extremely low youth registration figures for this election cycle.
Read more about ASRI here.
My guest this week is veteran South African investigative journalist Sam Sole. He is the co-managing partner of the amaBhungane, a non-profit investigative journalist team that has its roots in the Mail and Guardian newspaper.
I met Sam in Durban the mid-1990s when he was a reporter for the Sunday Tribune.
The amaBhungane team has played a major role in uncovering various aspects of state capture among other things.
We discussed how the amaBhungane team operates, how it chooses which stories to cover and then also some of the challenges facing journalism in south Africa and across the continent.
I was interested to hear how the amaBhungane are shifting focus to corporate South Africa. And also getting a sense of how the team works and the importance of having time to pursue stories to the end. A luxury missing from many newsrooms today around the world.
Read all about amaBhungane here.
Gabi Ncobo describes herself as a disruptor. As a curator she wants to unlock new ways of thinking about art. She describes herself as an artist, curator and educator but is wary of being labelled or put into a particular professional box. She wants that freedom that comes without mainstream job titles.
Gabi was born in Umlazi, a township south of Durban. She studied art at one of only two township art schools at the time and then went on study art, and curatorial practice.
She recently returned to South Africa after spending 18 months in Berlin curating the Berlin biennial. Before that she co-curated the 32nd Sao Paulo biennale.
Dr. Meriting Thokoane is a prosthsodontist, lecturer and traditional healer. She is currently doing an MA in Maxillofacial Prosthetics Rehabilitation through Kings College in London.
We chatted about her path into dentistry. We touched on some of the technical and psychological aspects of her work. Many of her patients have terrible head and neck damage that require her specialised technical support, but who are also in deep psychological distress due to the nature of their injuries.
We chatted about the joy and fulfilment she gets from her patients and students alike.
Meriting also speaks about her journey to becoming a traditional healer and the strength she gets from that.
I chatted to Frank a few months back when he was travelling through South-East Asia searching for "…the radical ubuntu that connects the marginalised around the world." We had a great chat and decided then to have a pre-election catch-up once the election was nearing.
Frank has been an activist and organiser for most of his adult life and offers a unique perspective on our current state and the future.
So we chatted a little about ubuntu and about his journey through Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. We chatted more about the current rather depressing state of the nation. "The centre is not holding". And we chatted a lot about his hope for the future and the possibilities for activism and change that come from a time of crisis. "Never become despondent and always be alive and looking for opportunities to engage and organise."
Ebrahim Fakir is the Programme Director for Auwel Socio-Economic Research Unit (ASRI). He is also a well-know policy analyst and political commentator.
Ebrahim grew in Lenasia south of Johannesburg (.."because I could not live anywhere else."). He later studied English Literature at Wits University before stints at IDASA, the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) and in the Legislation and Oversight Division of the South African parliament.
We chatted about a range of issues including the crisis of leadership facing the three main political parties, the inconsistency of policy as these parties vye for political power, the need for the ANC to push for growth if its welfare agenda is going to continue, and the importance of a functioning and empowered civil service that serves all the citizens of South Africa.
Find out more about ASRI here.
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
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.
Monde Nkasawe is the head of the secretariat to the Eastern Cape provincial government. He is also the author of eight books(7 self-published), including an anthology of poetry. His latest book, We Need A Country, is published by Sifiso Publishers.
Monde and I chatted about his journey into writing from a rural childhood in the Eastern Cape, through to his time in provincial government via his studies at the University of Cape Town in the early 1990's.
We also spent some time talking about some of the themes that come out of his writing-love, loss, corruption and violence.
Monde also speaks about the need to restore the integrity of national and local bureaucracies and the ongoing fight against patriarchy.
Elias Ribeiro moved to South Africa from Brazil via various European countries eight years ago. Through Urucu Media, Elias and his business partner Cait Pansegrouw, have bought a number of award-winning films to the screen including Necktie Youth, The Train of Salt and Sugar and most recently Inxeba/The Wound which was shortlisted for the Foreign Film Oscar 2018. He has also worked as a mentor for producers at the Realness project.
In our discussion we chart his journey from Hotel and Hospitality graduate to film producer. Elias gives an insight into the role of the producer, and explains the time-consuming and complicated process of bringing a film to the screen.
We also chatted about some of the activities of the the film market at the recent CTIFMF, the trials and tribulations of The Wound, where he and others were subjected to death threats, and his commitment to the future of film in South Africa and across the continent.
Sanele Sibanda is a senior lecturer at the School of Law at Wits University in Johannesburg. He was born in Zimbabwe to a Zimbabwean father and a South African mother. His father was involved in the negotiations that led to Zimbabwe gaining independence in 1980.
Sanele's areas of teaching include critical constitutionalism and indigenous law reform.
We chatted about his student days at the University of Cape Town in the early 1990's, the role of a constitution and the rule of law in building a national identity, and how indigenous/customary law can be better incorporated into our mainstream legal system.
The role of the constitution in the ongoing land reform debate in South Afrcia also came up in our conversation.
Nicholas Wolpe grew up in exile in the United Kingdom. In the early 2000's he took the first steps that would eventually lead to the development of the site in Rivonia into the Liliesleaf Museum.
Nicholas and I chatted about how the museum and its contents have evolved over time, and what a personal and cathartic journey it has been for him. Nicholas' father Harold was one of the 20 activists arrested on the site in July 11,1963.
Nicholas is concerned that South Africans are losing their history and that knowledge about the liberation struggle is important in creating a national identity in South Africa. He says that the past is our link to the present and our future.
Read more about the Lilliesleaf Museum at the link below.
http://www.liliesleaf.co.za/
Sinenhlanhla Nzama is the Head Product Actuary for South African financial services giant Investec. As such he is responsible for product development, risk and underwriting for Investec's insurance arm.
While we did discuss some aspects of his business, including the impact and influence of technology, particularly big data analytics, on the insurance industry as whole, we had a wide-ranging discussion on a number of topics.
He told me about having to learn English when he moved to high school, and witnessing some of the awful political violence that plagued KwaZulu Natal province in the late 1980's and early 1990's.
More importantly we chatted about his three pillars of transformation, the future of work, and how he sees the medium to long-term future of South Africa. ("There is nowhere on earth I would rather be")
I met Gontse Nxumalo at a street party in Orlando East a few years back. He was just formulating the idea that would become Orlando Sneaker Care Technicians. That idea is now a reality.
We spoke about a lot of things including his love of selling, his love for his community,and the stress of the hustle. Gontse also spoke about how the youth feel abandoned by government, and the destruction that corruption has caused in Orlando East.
You can find out more about OSCT at https://www.facebook.com/theOSCT/
I hope you enjoy this poignant and positive discussion.
My guest this week is Nyiko Shikwambane. Nyiko is currently busy with her master thesis in African Literature at Wits University. Nyiko was intimately involved in the Fees Must Fall movement at Wits and we do spend some time getting her perspective on where the movement stands today.
She was also, along with three fellow activists, involved in one of the most dramatic political protests of recent times when the four young women stood in silence in front of former President Zuma as he spoke, evoking the memory of his rape accuser Fezekile Khuzwayo. She tells me how that moment came about.
We had a wide-ranging discussion about, among other things, gender identity and the phenomenon of corrective rape, the changing nature of work and the potential of the fourth industrial revolution to create new leadership models, new industries and new ways of work.
Nyiko and her fellow activist Naledi Chirwa have launched a YouTube channel called #UnpolicedExpressions where they talk about issues of feminism and gender politics. I have included a poem from a recent episode at the end of this podcast so please listen to that.
Pearl Pillay grew up in Chatsworth, an Indian township south of Durban on the South African East Coast. She is a director at Youth Lab, a Johannesburg think-tank that works “to provide various platforms for young people and decision-makers to exchange ideas, develop strategies and execute plans that will enhance the lives of young South Africans.”
Pearl and I chatted about her meeting her hero Arundhati Roy at a recent book launch, growing up in a religious home blighted by a violent and alcoholic father, and her path into activism and politics.
We also looked at the work of the Youth Lab and some of the issues confronting the youth of South Africa today in the face of low growth, high youth unemployment and government apathy.
Kolosa Madikizela was born in Bizana in the Eastern Cape. She has worked in the construction and engineering industry for fifteen years and is the head of the Built Environment Unit at Aurecon, a multinational engineering company.
Kolosa is committed to transformation on a number of levels. Not only racial and gender transformation, but the transformation of thoughts and ways of working as well.
She also feels that construction companies, developers and the government need to work together on a more equatable and broader development agenda that looks to close the gap between townships and cities across the country.
Kolosa and I also spoke about the impact of technology on design, sustainable construction and the development of smart cities in the shadow of the fourth industrial revolution.
My guest this week is Rorisang Tshabalala. Rori is a business strategist with a focus on business model research and development, who looks for innovative solutions that help companies grow. He likes to bring ideas to life and develop ideas that impact the world in a fundamental way. He runs Chapter One Innovation.
He feels that companies can play a significant and crucial role in social mobility. We also chatted about his desire to unlock the power of South African townships by turning them into proper cities with all the investment and infrastructure that this entails.
Another topic we touched on is the evolving Fourth Industrial Revolution and how policies need to be developed for South Africa and the region to get as much benefit from this coming revolution as possible
I met first Imraan at the University of Natal in the mid-1990's when he worked for the Trade Union Research Project (TURP) that was based on the campus. We used to play football on the weekends.
These days he is the Dean of Commerce, Law and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand.
He recently chaired the Advisory Panel on the National Minimum Wage.
We chatted about his journey from trade union researcher into university management and spoke along the way about the current state of the trade union movement, the national minimum wage, the dilemmas that faced university management in the face of the Fees Must Fall movement and the role of a university in South Africa today.
Dan Moyane started his media career with the English-language service of Radio Mozambique in 1979 after fleeing South Africa, the security police on his tail.
On returning from exile in 1991 Dan worked for independent Talk Radio 702. He has held a number of roles in South African broadcasting and is currently co-host of Morning News Today on eNCA four days a week. He is also head of Public Affairs for MMI Holdings.
In this episode we chat about growing up in apartheid South Africa, the Soweto Uprising, the death of Samora Machel, the challenges facing post-liberation South Africa, the state of the ANC and racism in business.
My guest this week is Nozipho Mbanjwa. She is a broadcaster, moderator and entrepreneur. Nozipho has worked as an anchor for CNBC Africa, has moderated discussions for the World Bank, IMF and BRICS, and runs The Talent Firm.
Raised in Pietermaritzburg, Nozipho studied at the University of Pretoria before doing an internship in the Office of the Presidency while completing her Honours degree in International Relations. She also has a Masters Degree in International Studies & Diplomacy from the University of London and a Masters Degree in Development Finance from Stellenbosch Business School.
We spoke about her childhood in Pietermaritzburg, the lack of transformation in business leadership in South Africa, racism and gender violence, among other things.
My guest this week is Prof Ruth Hall. Ruth is based at PLAAS, the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian studies based at the University of the Western Cape.
Find out more about the work of PLAAS at plaas.org.za
She is one of South Africa's leading experts on land redistribution, land restitution and land tenure in the country. All three of her post-graduate degrees have focused on the land question in South Africa.
With land suddenly in the spotlight and a general election around the corner I thought it would be interesting to get some perspective on the debate.
While a lot of discussion is taking place on the need to change the South African Constitution in order to move land distribution forward, Ruth feels it is a lack of political will from the ANC that has stalled the process.
She also feels that land redistribution efforts have focused on giving farms to a politically connected urban elite, and not the poorest of the poor.
My guest this week is Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng the new Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town. She officially took up her position at the beginning of July.
We spoke about her childhood and schooling, and how she recognised and cultivated a love for mathematics and mathematics education. Professor Phakeng is a B1 rated researcher with more than 80 research papers to her name.
The conversation touched on issues around transformation and decolonization of tertiary education and the opportunities that the fees must fall movement can offer a university like UCT.
Mamokgethi also laid out her hopes for how the university might modernise over the next five to ten years, a process she says must begin with joint responsibility and reconciliation. Between all parties
Please not that this interview took place two days before the tragic death of Professor Bongani Mayosi, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at UCT. Prof Mayosi committed suicide on July 27.
Selfie credit: Prof Mamokgethi Phakeng
Christi van der Westhuizen is Professor of Sociology at the University of Pretoria. She is the author of two books. Her first book, "White Power", published in 2007, focuses on the rise and fall of the National Party. Her most recent offering is "Sitting Pretty-White Afrikaans Women in Postapartheid South Africa". She has written numerous academic publications and papers.
Christi grew up in Boksburg, outside Johannesburg. Her early career was as a journalist for the the anti-apartehid Afrikaans newspaper Vrye Weekblad, and then the more mainstream Beeld. After a time working in international relations she launched her academic career which has focued on issues of race and identity.
We spoke about her childhood in Boksburg, her early questioning of the Afrikaner mainstream around her, and some of the the themes of race, power and gender identity that form the backbone of her books.
We also chatted about issues around democratization, the re-emergence of a toxic Afrikaner nationalism, and the need to reboot the south African political discourse.
My guest this week is an icon of South African football. Clive Barker coached the South African football team Bafana Bafana to victory in the African Cup of Nations on home soil back in 1996. Along the way he coached a umber of championship club teams including his favourite 1985 Durban Bush Bucks.
Clive was sixteen years old when he made his professional debut for Durban City but two serious knee injuries pushed him into coaching.
He has recently published his memoirs, "Coach -The Life and Soccer Times of Clive Barker, written in conjunction with Micheal Marnewick.
The book is a journey though modern South African football, both during and after apartheid, and contains a wonderful selection of anecdotes from Clive, as well as tit-bits from some of the many famous players he coached including Calvin Peterson, Mark Fish and Doctor Khumalo. Clive was at the center of the golden age of south African football for two decades.
We chatted about coaching, the qualities he looked for in players, the 1996 final and his friendship with Nelson Mandela.
My guest this week is Chippy Olver. Chippy is a medical doctor who has devoted his adult life to the liberation struggle starting with the End Conscription Campaign back in the 1980's.
He has worked as a doctor, an activist and served in government as the Director General of Environmental Affairs and Tourism from 1999-20005.
In 2016 he was appointed to an ANC Regional Task Team aimed at rooting out corruption in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality. This was part of an effort to ensure the ANC did not lose the city in the 2016 municipal elections, an effort that ultimately failed. But led to Chippy writing a book about his experiences called How To Steal A City.
He is currently reading for a PhD in politics at the University of the Witwatersrand on the topic of corruption in local government. Since leaving government he has worked as a consultant in both the environmental and local government spaces.
We chatted about his early activism and radicalization, working for a government in transition, the rise of Jacob Zuma, the scourge of corruption and what the ANC needs to do in order to revitalise itself.
Nomso Kana is a young broadband entrepreneur and gender activist. She started a career as a nuclear researcher but after being frustrated by slow internet speeds she started the fibre optic manufacturing company Sun n Shield. She believes broadband is an essential service that should be available to everybody wherever they live.
Nomso grew up in the rural Eastern Cape where she studied maths and physics although she was only exposed to a physics laboratory when she studied at the University of Fort Hare.
She is also a co-founder of the NPO Taungana. "Taungana is a movement that empowers rural African high school girls with the opportunity to access and explore Science, Technology, Engineering, Entrepreneurship & Math (STEM)"
My guest this week is Siya Jentile the founder and CEO of Not in my Name SA. Siya formed the organization with a group of friends about a year ago in response to the murder of Karabo Mokoena . On May 3, 2018 Sandile Mantsoe was sentenced to more than 30 years imprisonment for killing her.
The organization has since expanded its remit from gender based violence activism to a broader social justice and civil rights organization.
Siya is member of the National inter-sectoral committee on domestic violence and femicide. He was recently selected to be one of the 200 delegates attending the inaugural Obama Foundation Africa Leadership Program, 2018.
Thandi Ntuli has been playing piano since the age of four and is a future legend of South African music.
Jackson Sinnenberg for NPR.org wrote "When you hear her fingers touch the ivories, the notes that flow come from the river of tradition that houses Chopin, Art Tatum, and Nina Simone. But in her compositions and vocals, you hear her channel the rhythms of life that inform can inform music all around Africa."
Thandi released her first album The Offering four years ago and released her second album Exiled a few months ago. I have included a track from each album in this episode.
We spoke about, among other things, We spoke about, among other things, the inspiration she gets from music across Africa, the foundation she got from her classical training and the joy of travelling the world.
Thandi and her band will be performing at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg 20-21 July 2018.
My guest this week is Professor Ahmed Bawa. Ahmed is the CEO of Universities South Africa, the membership body for all universities in the country. The organization is involved in policy development and advocacy work.
Ahmed grew up in a small town in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands and went on to become a particle physicist despite not studying physics at school. He has been in university administration for many years and was appointed to his current role in February 2016.
We chatted about the current state of tertiary institutions n South Africa, the lessons the institutions might have learnt from the Fees Must Fall movement, and how universities should make themselves more relevant to their communities.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Voices from SA, my name is Nicholas Claude. My guest this week, episode 17, is the saxophonist Sintu Ndzube. Sintu grew up in Port Elizabeth, attended the National School of Arts and went on to get a degree in music. She has played in various groups over the years and music has taken her to Peru, Sri Lanka and Dubai.
We chatted about how she took up the sax at a fairly late stage in her music education after studying piano for many years, the art of being a session musician and what it is like being the only woman in the band.
She is currently putting the finishing touches to her single Genesis which is being produced in collaboration with South African music titan Blondie Makhene. Later this year she will tour the USA with the musical Africa Umoja.
Ayana is a photographer who divides her time between Brooklyn, Paris and I am happy to say Johannesburg.
Her biography describes her work. "Ayana V Jackson’s work examines the complexities of photographic representation and the role of the camera in constructing identity. Using performance and studio-based portraiture, her practice can be seen as a map of the ethical considerations and relationships involved between the photographer, subject and viewer."
She is currently researching a project as part of a fellowship with the The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)
"My view of Johannesburg is that is is progressive and mixed. What keeps me here is that it is busy becomnig what it will be be. It has left its past but not quite found its future. It will never be in this moment again."
Batuk are producer Ntatho Mokgata (Spoek Mathambo) and singer Carla Fonseca (Manteiga). We met on the eve of the release of the first single, Deep Ocean Deep, from the duo's second album Kasi Royalty.
The sound is a combination of South African house beats, and rhythms and sounds from across the continent. Batuk recently returned from a tour that took them to Australia, South Korea and China.
We chatted about, among other things, creativity and performance, the global legacy of whiteness, and the ups and downs of life on the road.
I am pleased to include two groovy tracks from Kasi Royalty- the new single Deep Ocean Deep, and Niks Mapha!
Loyiso Gola is a world-famous South African comedian who divides his time between Johannesburg, London and wherever his next gig takes him.
Loyiso made his breakthrough as the host of Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola that was launched in 2010. The show was nominated for an international Emmy award in 2013.
He has performed a number of one-man shows over the years and is currently on the road with his latest performance Unlearning.
We spoke about the experience of being a pioneer in the new south African comedy scene, his constant process of developing his craft as he evolves as a person, and the difficulty of changing a society's culture.
The photo is from Loyiso's whats app profile.
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.
The fourth episode of Voices from SA is an interview with the young South African author Yamkela Tywakadi, the author of ten books. She has written in both isiXhosa and isiZulu and some of these works are on the school curriculum in South Africa. She recently published her first English novel entitled “Lies in Her Boots”.
Yamkela was raised by her grandmother near Mount Frere in the Eastern Cape. We had a fascinating discussion about the role of the author in contemporary South Africa, about ancestors and tradition as well as issues around land, race and patriarchy.
The third episode of the recently launched podcast, Voices from SA, is an interview with Ronnie Kasrils, a founding member of the armed wing of the ANC, uMhkonto we Sizwe(MK). The interview took place on the eve of the ANC National Executive Committee meeting that took the decision to recall President Zuma.
The wide-ranging interview, part history and part manifesto covers the challenges of launching the armed struggle, resurrecting the struggle against apartheid during the late 1970’s, the failures of the negotiated transition and the potential “second chance” offered by the recent appointment of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Kagiso Lediga is a pioneering South African comedian as well as an actor, writer and producer. His directorial debut Catching Feelings will be released in cinemas across South Africa on March 9, and around the world in April.
The interview took place in early December 2017. We chatted about a number of things including his early comedy influences, the winding road to making his first TV show, the groundbreaking Pure Monate Show, the benefits of knowing your audience, and the role of comedy in the modern South Africa. He loves to tell a story so enjoy the show.
Sisonke talks to Nicholas about growing up in exile, gender violence, fake news and the potential of the Fees Must Fall movement.