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In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, Ian Cameron, the Chairperson of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police, has a very direct message for Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia who - at the SAPS National Commemoration Day for fallen heroes - introduced him to the Free State MEC as “Chairperson Cameron, the one that always lambasts the police in the media” . Cameron says: “I thought to myself, you know what? I bleed with the police, I cry with the police, I absolutely live for the police. And every single question and every single matter that I take on is a matter based on information that the good cops shared with me, the cops that actually had the guts to come forward and speak…So I take it very personally when a comment is made that disregards the hard work that we put in. So the message is very, very simple: whether the Minister likes it or not, and whether we get pushback or not on the questions that we ask, we will keep asking. We will keep highlighting and we will keep exposing.” Furthermore, Cameron speaks about his long battle to hold accountable Major-General Feroz Khan who has finally been sacked. He shares details of epic battles to deal with shortages of vehicles (and even R5s) at various police units and stations. He also shares photos of horrific injuries suffered by an arson-detection dog at the SAPS Veterinary facility at Roodeplaat, prompting him to lay criminal charges.

Ten years after Brett Redelinghuys was banned for trying to expose problems from the inside, World Aquatics has provisionally suspended Swimming SA's president and CEO over abuse of power allegations, vindicating his years-long fight. Elsewhere, IRR pollster Hermann Pretorius tells Chris Steyn why South African women, not men, are the ANC's real firewall against the DA. At BNC#9 in the Drakensberg, constitutional expert Paul Hoffman makes the case for the DA's devolution plan and a police overhaul, while Afrimat's Andries van Heerden argues Transnet's turnaround is the proof South Africa's negative narrative needs correcting.

Paul Hoffman has sued Jacob Zuma so many times that he calls him his "number one sponsor," because every case Zuma lost came with a costs order. At BNC#9, the Accountability Now advocate took questions on the private member's bill that could finally give South Africa an independent, Chapter 9 anti-corruption commission, why he thinks IDAC is structurally doomed and headed for a constitutional challenge, and who he expects to be first up for investigation once a proper body exists. He also made the case for the DA's fight to take policing powers away from national government in the Western Cape, explained why greed rather than ideology drives most corruption, and said why he doesn't buy the idea that Patrice Motsepe wants the presidency.

Afrimat's Andries van Heerden bought a struggling cement business for its quarries, not its cement, and is now watching a Chinese buyer take on the part he didn't want. In this Q&A from BNC#9, he tells Alec Hogg what actually scares him in a takeover, why Transnet's turnaround is the best he's seen in years, and why he still won't chase lithium at today's price. Along the way: fixing a Free State town without handing over a cent, the gold South Africa has left in the ground since 1886, and why doing business with Chinese contractors is a lesson his own team is still learning.

In this interview with Chris Steyn, Hermann Pretorius of the Institute for Race Relations (IRR) unpacks his polling results on South Africa’s women voters from 2021 to 2026, including the key finding that women voters are keeping the African National Congress (ANC) ahead of the Democratic Alliance (DA). “..all the years from 2021 till now, the ANC has an advantage among women voters.. if only men voted in an election in South Africa in 2026, the ANC and the DA would be essentially tied at 26-27%. If only women voted, the DA would be on 26% and the ANC would be on 37%.” Asked for his predictions of the outcome of the November Local Government Elections, Pretorius estimates that the ANC could get as much as 50% in Mangaung, while DA in Johannesburg could get between 42 to 44% and the ANC between 20 to 23%; the DA in Tshwane between 44 to 47% and the ANC between 24 to 27%; the DA holding Cape Town with between 58 and 61% of the vote; the DA in Ekurhuleni garnering as much 43% of the vote with the ANC down in the mid-low 20s and the Freedom Front Plus at between 9 and 11%; and in EThekwini the DA and MKP possibly tying at 30%, with the IFP at about 14%, and the ANC at around 10%. “But I think the number to watch is MK versus DA. Those I think in an urban-suburban setting are the two parties that are likely to be at each other's throats for that first spot.”