BizNews Radio

A day before the vote, Cilliers Brink said the polls that put him well short of a majority in Tshwane had it wrong, or at least not yet right. The former mayor, removed two years earlier, told Alec Hogg that squeezed smaller parties and a weakened ANC election machine could still hand the DA an outright win. He laid the Bronkhorstspruit water crisis at the door of mayor Nasiphi Moya and the ANC-held portfolios in her mayoral committee, explained why he would bring private operators into water, electricity and waste collection without going the formal PPP route, and said the goodwill behind DA-ANC co-operation nationally did not extend to the metros. Then Alec asked him to sell his vision to a Mamelodi resident who had gone a week without water.

On the eve of the local government elections, three of Johannesburg's smaller parties told Chris Steyn what living in the city had become: friends idle on beer crates at noon, a CBD too unsafe to walk, and suburbs now complaining as loudly as townships. Frans Cronje said ordinary South Africans already agreed on how to fix the country and wanted their parties to work together, and explained who he believed was standing in the way. Prince Mashele said he was very worried about what an MK win could mean for KwaZulu-Natal, and named the ANC result he would count as bad news. Willem Els told Chris Steyn why an acting police minister had moved now on Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and the Hawks, and whether the general's KZN formula could work in an investigations unit. Reuters rounded off the show with the latest from Wall Street.

Small parties wield big power in South Africa's coalition political landscape. Chris Steyn speaks to Move SA President and Jo’burg mayoral candidate Rali Mampeule, ALJAMA-A’s Jo’burg Mayoral candidate Ashley Mama and the African Transformation Movement (ATM) Youth Leader Bafana Tshabalala. They each share their worst experiences of living in Johannesburg, their visions of saving the city, and their desire for cooperation - instead of hostility - between parties. “All politicians should be like bishops and pastors, that their whole sole aim is to make sure that they preach the word of God. I get very surprised when politicians go and they debate and they hate each other. And I ask myself, when do they have the time to go on the ground and actually help the people that need the help”, Mampeule says. Tshabalala adds that coalition negotiations and agreements should not have at its centre “who gets to benefit from the benefits of Blue Lights”, but about ensuring that the city works and ensuring that the services are delivered to the people. “It should not matter who gets to deliver those services”. Meanwhile, Mama urges citizens to be more active, because “it does not help you to lament the situation. Because if you keep leaving the situation currently as it is, there will be a revolt that we won't be able to control.”

Political analyst Prince Mashele tells Alec Hogg the ANC needs 35% nationally for a good night, that anything in the upper 20s would be a catastrophe, and that with the vote days away Johannesburg voters still have no idea who its mayoral candidate is. SRF chairman Dr Frans Cronjé says South Africa is halfway through a two-step regime change, and only a DA-ANC deal uniting the middle class and the aspirant middle class holds the country together. Willem Els weighs Paul O'Sullivan's bid to block Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi at the Hawks.

Platō Coffee, a well-known South African brand founded by brothers Stephan and Petrus Bredell, started in a shipping container in Irene and is now heading for almost 180 shops, with expansion overseas under way. In an interview with Biznews, Bredell explains why the brand’s clean, modern white design and friendly baristas who know your name and your order have proved its biggest edge in London. When somebody remembers your name and order, he says. it matters in the AI age. He also talks about the success of their Harare shop, their collaboration with UK matcha brand PerfectTed and their plans to open in the US. And what does he put the success of Platō, and of Slingshot, the hospitality group he is now building with his brother, down to? Connecting the dots of failure, he says, and a healthy dose of “delusional confidence” as an entrepreneur.