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 t ..read more

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 landscap ..read more

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 We also discussed the reasons behind the lock down and how some of these reason are no longer valid according to Shabir.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 dec ..read more

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 s ..read more

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 discuss ..read more

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 comme ..read more

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 a ..read more

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 ..read more

Father Micheal 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 ..read more

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 chat ..read more