BizNews Radio

The night before she raced for a World Championship title, Tatjana Smith wasn't thinking about her stroke. She was thinking about a fine. South Africa's most decorated Olympian tells Alec Hogg how Swimming SA threatened to fine her tens of thousands of euros for wearing the wrong swimwear, how her prize money sat in the federation's account for over a year, and why she's only speaking now that the sport's global governing body has suspended Swimming SA's president and CEO over allegations of fake documents and abuse of power. She also opens up on a R100 million-plus training centre that's now overrun with weeds, and the new athlete watchdog she's launching to stop the next generation going through what she did.

Three of South Africa's toughest voices, one no-holds-barred Q&A. At BNC#9 in the Drakensberg, Dr Corné Mulder, Dr Theo de Jager and Gerhard Papenfus fielded questions from delegates on AGOA's future, a BEE court battle they say is being decided by judges swapped out overnight, and what business is prepared to do if government pushes further. Along the way: the maths behind Helen Zille's Joburg bid, why "wasting your vote" is mostly a myth, and a blunt message the panel says they delivered straight to the White House.

In their latest weekly chat, Chris Steyn and political commentator Solly Moeng talk about President Cyril Ramaphosa winning another round in his impeachment fight while the man waiting in the wings, Deputy President Paul Mashatile, has not been seen officially since July amid rumours that he might have been poisoned. “We don't have a president who's able to focus on governing, on leading, on uniting South Africa. We have a president who's running, who's constantly gazing over his shoulders...” Moeng also comments on the latest dramatic testimony at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry as well as the apparent cover-up to protect 12 serving South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers who had allegedly kidnapped an Islamic-linked financier and then assassinated the South African police officer who investigated them. Arguing against future majority rule by any one party, Moeng says: “Once the power gets launched in their heads, they become monsters we can't do anything about. Because what stands between what is good for South Africa and hell is the power that we tend to put in the heads of politicians, the trust, us treating them as heroes and heroines without ensuring that there are sufficient checks and balances in our institutions, in our system to make sure that as soon as somebody goes rogue on us, the system automatically stops them.”

America hasn't just lost ground in Iran, says economist Iraj Abedian, it's lost the myth of being unbeatable. Speaking at BNC#9, Abedian lays out the binary choice facing Washington and Tehran, the alliances quietly reshuffling around Israel, and the human cost hidden behind the headlines. Then comes the question every South African investor needs answered: which side should we be on? His answer will not please everyone in Pretoria.

AfriForum's Morné Mostert tells BizNews the ANC's plan to merge Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni into one mega metro fails the science test - bigger municipalities don't perform better - and mainly boosts councillors' pay, which scales with size. From BNC#9, Dawie Roodt tells Alec Hogg he'd rebuild confidence by literally cleaning up the country, then hand himself the finance ministry to build the world's simplest tax regime. Ian Cameron revisits the Philippi ambush that nearly killed him a year ago, and Reuters wraps a Wall Street slide as bonds sell off and oil spikes on Iran.