The Lead

A global Chinese construction giant and its staff overseeing a gargantuan wind and solar farm in the Karoo are facing mounting allegations of not only breaches of health and safety regulations, but also environmental violations, and even sexual harassment. Specialist climate journalist, Ethan van Diemen, has spent many months investigating the tsunami of claims swirling around Sinohydro's Oya Hybrid Energy Project outside Sutherland in the Northern Cape. This is not a conversation to miss. First, though, let host broadcast journalist, Graeme Raubenheimer, bring you the breaking news that president Cyril Ramaphosa has put the police's chief financial officer, Puleng Dimpane, in charge of our men and women in blue as acting national commissioner. Later, in our regular segment, On This Day in SA History, the late former AWB leader, Eugene Terreblanche, was sentenced to prison for trying to kill a black worker. Comment below and send our host, broadcast journalist Graeme Raubenheimer, a voice note: 072 562 3179. To advertise: [email protected]. Full editions drop on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. The show is fully produced, presented and edited by Raubenheimer and quality-checked by News24's editors.

He's been close to the notorious “Cat” before. And now he'll be even closer to alleged criminal tender don Vusimusi Matlala, as they share the same prison in Pretoria ahead of their respective trials. Facing unlawful firearm possession and obstruction of justice charges, suspended police sergeant Fannie Nkosi has now been denied bail. And our journalist, Tankiso Makhetha, explains the reasons in this edition. In our trending topic, could this be our first winter without load shedding in a long time? Touch wood! Finally, more than one and a half thousand people were detained by apartheid police following the Sharpeville Massacre, with On This Day in SA History, our usual segment. Comment below and send our host, broadcast journalist Graeme Raubenheimer, a voice note: 072 562 3179. To advertise: [email protected]. Full editions drop on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. The show is fully produced, presented and edited by Raubenheimer and quality-checked by News24's editors.

It's a multibillion-rand solar panel farm, said to be the most ambitious of its kind on African soil, all to boost our rehabilitated energy grid. Yet, in her investigations, News24 journalist Azarrah Karrim has unearthed a series of alleged red flags in the Chinese state company-led construction of the Virginia Solar Park, a two-hour drive from Bloemfontein. From alleged B-BBEE fronting to claims of serious labour violations, there's plenty to answer for in this edition of The Lead. Later, in our trending topic, prosecutors push to keep controversial police sergeant, Fannie Nkosi, behind bars. Finally, 123 people perished in a Boeing 707 plane crash in Namibia, on This Day in SA History, our regular segment. Comment below and send our host, broadcast journalist Graeme Raubenheimer, a voice note: 072 562 3179. To advertise: [email protected]. Full editions drop on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. The show is fully produced, presented and edited by Raubenheimer and quality-checked by News24's editors.

He led Mzansi's newest green party to fifth place in the 2021 municipal polls, so the question is: what will it take for Herman Mashaba's ActionSA to do it again in 2026? The founder of Black Like Me is our guest this Newsmaker Thursday on News24's The Lead. Mashaba insists that ActionSA is the only party growing its councillor base by attracting smaller parties to defect without having to win by-elections. Can he pick up where he left off as mayor of a now-broken Johannesburg? Mashaba promises to resume his project of reclaiming so-called “problem buildings” by, in part, rounding up illegal migrants in the inner-city. But what if he doesn't clinch the Jozi mayoral chain outright in the upcoming municipal polls and needs to form a coalition? Mashaba insists that even if that happens, he will refuse to work alongside his rival, DA mayoral candidate Helen Zille, again. Finally, on this day in 2004, 75 000-year-old shell beads washed up near Stilbaai, sparking global headlines. Comment below and send our host, broadcast journalist Graeme Raubenheimer, a voice note: 072 562 3179. To advertise: [email protected]. Full editions drop Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube. The show is fully produced, presented and edited by Raubenheimer and quality-checked by News24's editors.

They met behind closed doors on the sidelines of the News24 On the Record Summit in Cape Town in March, and now we finally know the outcome. President Cyril Ramaphosa is deploying former constitutional affairs minister Roelf Meyer to Washington, D.C., to try and salvage what's left of US/SA ties. We've roped in News24's investigations editor and fellow history buff, Pieter du Toit, to help us understand the strategic nature of Pretoria's latest salvo, given Ramaphosa and Meyer's shared legacy in ensuring our transition to democracy. In our trending topic show segment, Facebook is a popular place for people to sell wildlife, but how bad is it? A new report sheds light. Finally, the newly-formed Union of SA issued its very first national weather forecast, On This Day in SA History. Comment below and send our host, broadcast journalist Graeme Raubenheimer, a voice note: 072 562 3179. To advertise: [email protected]. Full editions drop Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube. The show is fully produced, presented and edited by Raubenheimer and quality-checked by News24's editors.