South Africa increasingly resembles a mafia state, where it can cost as little as R2,000 to organise a hit.
This week, Rob Rose and Zukile Majova dig into the case of taxi boss Joe "Ferrari" Sibanyoni, and the prosecutor who was too scared to show up in court. From cut-price hired hitmen to the brazen killing of AKA on Florida Road, they ask whether the rule of law has simply collapsed in the face of organised crime. The taxi industry's grip extends far beyond South Africa. Special guest Patrick Smith, editorial director of Africa Confidential, joins to unpack the Matatu strike that brought Kenya's capital to a standstill, and what it reveals about who really holds power across the continent.
Then: the Iran war's ripple effects on African fuel prices, shipping backlogs, and food security — and why one man is coining it. Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, has built the world's largest single-process oil refinery. With oil at $105 a barrel and the Strait of Hormuz closed, his timing looks like genius.
Sharp Sharp is hosted by Rob Rose of Currency News and Zukile Majova of Scrolla.Africa.
Two of South Africa's sharpest minds dig into the Phala Phala scandal, ask whether Ramaphosa deserves to survive, disagree on his presidency score, and close with a construction mafia invoice that reads like fiction but is very real.
The Constitutional Court ruled last week that Parliament failed in its duty when it buried the section 89 panel report on Phala Phala. An impeachment enquiry is now required. Rob Rose and Zukile Majova dig into everything you need to know about how $580,000 in cash ended up stuffed under a couch on Cyril Ramaphosa's game farm, why a Sudanese businessman left without his buffaloes, and why the president who nearly resigned in 2022 is not going anywhere this time. They also ask the big question: has Ramaphosa actually been good for South Africa? Rob gives him 65 percent. Zuks gives him 80. You decide. Then they get into the construction mafia story of the week — a JSE listed company paid eight and a half million rand to a mafia boss for what was invoiced as strategic security services.
A man was eaten by a crocodile in the Komati River this week.
Rob Rose and Zukile Majova used it as the perfect metaphor for what is happening to ordinary South Africans right now. Paraffin is now R28 a litre at the regulated price and R40 by the time it reaches a village spaza shop. It is the fuel of the poorest South Africans heading into winter and nobody in government seems to care. Rob and Zuks dig into the cost of living crisis that is eating through people's pockets, the HSRC survey showing support for democracy has collapsed from 65% to 36% since the mid-2000s, why that collapse is pushing people toward strongman leaders like Jacob Zuma and Donald Trump, the NSFAS disaster and the deeply questionable new appointment to fix it, and the Chad Du Plessis award of the week which goes to Gwede Mantashe's department for getting the fuel price calculation wrong by a rand.
Xenophobia is spreading from Durban to Pretoria to Johannesburg.
The March on March movement is shutting down CBDs, politicians from the ANC to ActionSA are fuelling it, and the police are taking selfies with the march leaders instead of stopping them. Rob Rose and Zukile Majova dig into why this lawlessness is possible and why the leadership vacuum in law enforcement is letting it happen. Then they get into Sisisi Tolashe, the Social Development Minister and ANC Women's League president who registered two government cars in her children's names, one of whom sold the car and handed back a different one to Luthuli House. Cyril acted on Masemola but cannot seem to act on her. Zuks explains exactly why. And finally, Solly Malatsi launched South Africa's AI policy and then had to pull it because it was full of AI hallucinations. Rob and Zuks ask whether the government is half a step away from incompetence at all times and introduce the man responsible. His name is Chad Du Plessis.
A minor bumper bashing in Emmarentia this week ended with a man shot dead in front of his children, his wife wounded, and a country asking itself how it got here.
Rob Rose and Zukile Majova dig into South Africa's road rage crisis and what the numbers actually say — 1,453 murders in a single quarter linked to road rage and provocation, SA ranked first in the world for aggressive driver behaviour, and 34 people shot dead every single day. What makes SA uniquely lethal is not just the anger — it is that the guns are legal. They also get into the xenophobic violence building in KZN, what it means that every political party except the DA is using anti-immigrant rhetoric ahead of the local elections, and the one figure who has the moral authority to calm things down. Plus Fannie Masemola charged and what it tells us about Ramaphosa's decision-making.
Julius Malema is in court in East London and Rob Rose and Zukile Majova have thoughts on whether a judge should ever factor in what happens outside the courtroom when handing down a sentence.
Then they get into the big one: the DA just elected Geordin Hill-Lewis as leader and the question is whether another white guy at the top is enough of a break from the past. Zuks's grandmother wouldn't open the door for a big white man knocking. Would she open it for Helen Zille? Almost certainly. And that tells you everything about the DA's problem. They also get into the ANC's generational rot, the Phala Phala report and why Ramaphosa was never really a leader — just the only option available.
Trump threatened to wipe out an entire civilisation, then chickened out an hour before his own deadline.
Trump threatened to wipe out an entire civilisation, then chickened out an hour before his own deadline. Rob Rose and Zukile Majova unpack the TACO moment heard around the world and what it means for South Africa's foreign policy in an era of creeping authoritarianism. They also get into the rebel faction inside the ANC that wants to collapse the GNU and replace the DA with the EFF and MK, why that would be catastrophic for the rand and investment, and whether South Africa's environment actually allows entrepreneurs to thrive after SA born Natie Kirsh sold his US company for R500 billion.
Trump's war on Iran has sent the fuel price through the roof and South Africa is feeling it hard.
Trump's war on Iran has sent the fuel price through the roof and South Africa is feeling it hard. Rob Rose and Zukile Majova dig into the three rand a litre relief cut and whether the government can sustain it, Ramaphosa's investment conference and the smoke and mirrors around two trillion rand, the fascinating poll showing 47% of ANC voters want Patrice Motsepe as their next leader, why Ramaphosa cannot fire his police minister even when he knows he should, and Helen Zille swimming in a Joburg pothole.