Voices From Sa

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](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2019-05-14-a-curates-egg-of-an-election/). 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](http://www.asri.org.za/).

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](https://amabhungane.org/).

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](http://www.asri.org.za/).

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](https://stuff.co.za/). 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](https://www.asl-foundation.org/). [Drawdown](https://www.drawdown.org/) 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](https://www.constitutionhill.org.za/).

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](https://www.kayafm.co.za/).

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](http://kieronjina.com/)

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