Rob Rose and Zukile Majova return for episode 26 of Sharp Sharp, the weekly podcast on politics, money and power from the Financial Mail and Scrolla.Africa.
The pressure is building on Fikile Mbalula. The ANC secretary-general is being blamed for the party’s failure to submit 181 council candidates on time. He also faces Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s vote-buying allegations and threatened legal action from AfriForum over comments about an Eastern Cape school principal.
Rob and Zuks ask whether one of the ANC’s great political survivors has become too much of a liability for the party to protect.
They also examine the crisis at the top of the police, the collapse of Johannesburg’s inner city and the residents being left without basic services.
The episode ends with Donald Trump’s claims about South Africa, the real problem of rural crime, the fight over Starlink and whether Thabo Mbeki could help repair relations with Washington.