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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.”

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.

According to Nomvula Mokonyane, First Deputy Secretary-General of the African National Congress (ANC), the party is considering a fundamental review of the country’s municipal structures, including the possible amalgamation of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni into a single “megatropolis”. In his reaction, Morné Mostert, Local Government Affairs Manager for AfriForum, tells Chris Steyn that his civil rights organisation would “tackle it legally - full scale” as “this won't benefit any citizens on ground level”. He also points out that municipal councillors remuneration is based upon how big the municipality is. “So it's very obvious for political structures to say, yes, let's create a larger municipality as it will benefit them personally.” Mostert further details the large-scale municipal litigation AfriForum is currently involved in. “Our latest primary focus with regards to litigation are shadow fees and taxes that our municipalities put into the tariff bylaws and put into the budgets… most of these municipalities are just running to get funds together and they're not doing that in a legal or lawful manner.” Describing the mood on the ground, he says: “...most people are frustrated. No economy can function properly if there aren't regular, efficient and readily available services… people are in dire straits.”

The taxman, the Reserve Bank and your crypto wallet: Dawie Roodt doesn't hold back. In this Q&A straight after his BNC#9 keynote, the Efficient Group chief economist explains why officials want your phone and your passwords if you try to take money offshore, why roughly 200 000 taxpayers are propping up the entire country, and why he thinks the new Transformation Fund could spell the end of BEE as we know it. Along the way: a blunt take on land versus cattle, why South African schools spend big and still underperform, and why he'd rather fix the tax code than lower the tax burden.

A brigadier's pips on a secretary with zero police experience. A rape kit that costs the state eight times what it should. A cocaine pipeline running through a West Coast holiday town. One year after he was shot at during an oversight visit in Philippi, Police Portfolio Committee chairperson Ian Cameron sits down at BNC#9 to talk about what he's actually found inside South Africa's police service, and it isn't just bad apples. He names the patronage machine, explains why whistleblowers can't afford to go public, and says exactly how long he thinks it will take to turn the SAPS around. Then the floor opens, and the questions get sharper.