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In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, Ian Cameron, the Chair of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police, shares the shocking findings of his latest oversight visit. He describes finding, at one station, over 30 detectives sharing an office container with only three chairs and one laptop and no official detective telephones. He also details horror findings at two more stations. Cameron says SAPS members are pleading for help. “I've already submitted the reports this morning to both the Minister and the National Commissioner and we will be following it up...” Also discussing the biggest shocks from the Budget Review, Cameron says: “...Only one out of 10 murders are actually detected properly. Remember, it doesn't necessarily mean it is solved or that there's success or prosecution. This is just a complete detection process. So I am extremely concerned.” Lastly, he says police members are hailing the downfall of former Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya and former Crime Intelligence deputy chief Feroz Khan. “...Really dedicated ground level members are saying, but this is good riddance. They've been wishing for resolve for so long.”

Enoch Godongwana told Parliament that South Africa had emerged from the fiscal wilderness. Dawie Roodt agreed the corner had been turned, just not for the reasons the minister would want. Debt had stabilised and the primary surplus was growing, but the improvement came from a commodity windfall, an aggressive SARS and a tax burden Roodt said was the highest it had ever been, rather than from growth. Speaking to Alec Hogg hours after the mini budget, the Efficient Group's chief economist took aim at the money flowing to badly run municipalities two weeks before the local vote, the politics behind the fuel levy cut and the social grant court case still hanging over Treasury. He finished with blunt advice for taxpayers, investors and ratepayers.

Johannesburg twice handed its mayoralty to a party that won less than 1% of the vote. With 547 parties and almost 137,000 candidates chasing 10,526 council seats on 4 November, Jaundiced Eye columnist William Saunderson-Meyer argued that most of those names were vanity projects or job-seekers, and that the big parties quietly benefited from the clutter. He told Alec Hogg why ActionSA's Herman Mashaba could end up a kingmaker but not a queenmaker in Joburg, how two party leaders reached powerful parliamentary posts on well under half a percent of the national vote, and why a cross next to a no-hoper might end up somewhere the voter never intended.

With Local Government Elections looming, all eyes are on KZN. In this interview with Chris, Steyn, eThekwini Mayoral Candidate and Deputy President of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Wayne Thring, describes how his party resisted bribery involving millions and even an offer of an ambassadorship. “Our councillors were offered incentives, millions of Rands, to join a particular coalition bloc which was with the ANC and the current coalition bloc in eThekwini. And they resisted, they refused. And that's the calibre. I myself was enticed with positions when I was serving in 2013. I was enticed with positions at a national level. I was offered an ambassador position if I would resign from the ACDP to join the ruling party. I refused.” As for his party’s decision to stay out of the Government of National Unity (GNU), he said: “We were invited and positions obviously were forwarded for the ACDP. But because of the tainted track record that the ANC have, we would have found ourselves having to defend, like the coalition partners are now having to defend at a national level, some of the policies of the ANC. Or if not defending, having to be quiet and silent so as not to rock the boat.” Thring is adamant that his party would never go into a coalition with the ANC, MKP and the EEF. “We have boots on the ground currently in all of the wards across eThekwini to ensure that a party like the MKP, and I must add ANC and EFF, amongst some of the others…we are working hard to ensure that political parties like these do not cause more damage, bring more chaos to South Africa…”

Cape Independence Party leader Jack Miller tells BizNews what a good night looks like on 4 November, and how a five-megabyte upload limit on the IEC's portal kept Cape Exit off the 2024 ballot entirely. Security analyst Willem Els says the secrecy around the trial of Jacob Zuma's former spy boss Thulani Dlomo, accused with a fellow SSA official of looting R12 million in secret funds, is no surprise, and may be only the tip of the iceberg. Orion Minerals CEO Tony Lennox explains why Glencore as both funder and sole buyer suits Prieska.