my guest today is the leader of the biggest opposition party, the democratic alliance, john steenhuisen. could he become south africa s first white leader since apartheid? john steenhuisen, welcome to hardtalk. great to be with you, stephen. well, it s great to be here in cape town. let s start with a very simple question. when you said not so long ago, there is a changing of the guard coming in south africa, the anc s decline is terminal. it s just a matter of how fast, did you really believe that? of course i believed it then. i think it s a fair assessment about where the anc find themselves, in the last local government elections, in 2021, they, for the first time in post democratic south africa, lost their majority and fell below 50%. this obviously allied with the fact that our economy s not growing, we ve got 30 million people living in poverty, 12 million people unemployed, and loadshedding, rolling blackouts, which have reached into every home and switched off the
now, if the anc is faltering, who is best placed to offer an alternative? well, my guest today isjulius malema, leader of the radical populist economic freedom fighters. if malema were to get even a share of power, what would that mean for south africa? julius malema, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. thank you very much. it s a pleasure to talk to you, mr malema. we are speaking as south africa is in the middle of an energy crisis. it seems set to get worse. what do you think it is doing to this country? well, its aim is to collapse this country and undermine the democratic project, because those in power have relegated their responsibilities, to who, we don t know. they have not maintained the power stations. they have not built the new ones that are functional. and as a result, we are where we are. the interim ceo of eskom, the state owned energy company, said yesterday that over the coming months of winter they might get to a stage eight situation, which means there could b
saying an improved pay offer could be enough to stop strikes, scheduled for monday and tuesday. you re watching bbc news. now it s time for how to heal the nhs. we ve been almost 12 hours in an ambulance. there were people sitting on the floor, people on trolleys everywhere. it was just horrendous. record waits in a&e, trolleys stacked up along busy corridors, ambulance crews forced to queue outside for hours with their patients. it does get tricky when you see a time come on the call and it s hours ago and you are thinking, oh, gosh, what are you going to turn up to? and they are in a bad state. the health service in every corner of the uk has been battling through its worst winter in a generation. we are running two and three times above our capacity continually, and often more than that. we ve had crises in the nhs before, but doctors say nothing like this. this is undoubtedly a crisis, and it s undoubtedly a national scandal. we simply haven t seen the action that was nec
what we don t know, obviously the numbers. we don t know when or how this will happen. we do know the way that it s written says it s an answer to an appeal, a letter from the head of the judiciary who essentially frames it as being many people who went out to protest, particularly the young, were misled, by foreign agents, propaganda from abroad, and that they now want forgiveness. and they re still described as riots, nothing more, nothing less. so, in terms of how the authorities frame this, obviously nothing has changed. also, it makes clear that people who are accused, who have been charged with more serious crimes, so that s spying, murder, destruction of state property, won t be pardoned. the issue about that is that many, many activists, many people involved in this say that those people who have been charged with the strongest offences have not had fair trials. they ve been summary trials. so they haven t had a fair look at what their case is anyway. i think this is
ms bulley was last seen nine days ago. you re watching bbc news. now it s time for you, me and the big c. cheering and applause. hello everyone. good evening. welcome to you, me and the big c live. woo. hello. i m proud founder of girlsvscancer lauren mahon. and he is steve bland, who will always be known as steve bland. if you have just started listening, you are so 2018. where have you been? but we have covered a load of topics and you might find them helpful, or a loved one might find them helpful. we ve spoke to all sorts of incredible people you can find it where you get your podcasts. we, tonight, arejoined by actress victoria ekanoye. you may recognise her from gracing the cobbles of coronation street or national favourite the royals. and since her diagnosis of breast cancer in 2021, our wonderful victoria has opened up about her experience and the importance of breast health. and joining victoria, we ve got a man who probably needs no introduction to us, because he