VOC Breakfast

BDS versus Woolies: analysis

South African retail and corporate giant Woolworths is taking the Palestine solidarity and human rights organisation BDS South Africa, to court over the Israel boycott. Woolies have accused BDS of infringing on its right to trade and of intimidating staff and customers. Is BDS stepping over the line of freedom…

17 Nov 2014 5 min

Career criminals targeting shopping malls

With an increase in armed robberies and retail crime expected over the festive season, authorities have been warned that highly-organised, highly-experienced career criminals are behind the spate of shopping malls robberies we have seen recently. Our reporter Nishta Sookdiyal spoke to Graham Wright, the head of crime risk initiative at…

14 Nov 2014 8 min

MJC Independent advisory panel - analysis

On Wednesday, we discussed the MJC’s decision to launch an independent advisory panel, which seeks to provide advice to the ulema on a number of key issues. The MJC has been lauded for taking this bold step, but the question now is whether this is enough to repair its fragile…

14 Nov 2014 7 min

Naming and shaming: rights of parents

Before the break, we chatted to Glendale high school principal Mr Achmat Chotia about the challenges facing under privileged schools. At the same time, we know that many parents are struggling financially and have legitimate reasons for not paying schools fees. And as we approach the end of the school…

14 Nov 2014 7 min

Naming and Shaming of pupils

Yesterday, we briefly discussed the naming and shaming of pupils who have not paid school fees, as reported in the Cape Times. This story got quite a bit of reaction from our listeners, so clearly this is a matter that hit home for many parents. At the same time, what…

14 Nov 2014 7 min

Nc4P to host public workshop on Palestine

High-energy, informative and hard-hitting, Breakfast Beat packs a mean punch. This show is a current affairs and actuality show, which focuses mainly on issues that are of concern to the community that Voice of the Cape serves. The show feature interviews with prominent politicians, community activists, religious leaders, academic experts…

13 Nov 2014 6 min

City assesses Tafelsig drug rehab centre

City of Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille, visited a City alcohol and drug treatment site in Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain yesterday to assess operations and to review the success of the substance abuse treatment programme. VOC reporter Ra’eesah Isaacs has this story

13 Nov 2014 7 min

Western Cape facing stock outs of certain medicines

Certain medication is currently in short supply at Western Cape health facilities. The Western Cape department of Health says these stock-outs are unfortunately affecting all districts and sub-structures in the province. Our intern reporter Nishta Sook-diyal spoke to MEC Theuns Botha

13 Nov 2014 5 min

Naming and shaming of parents

High-energy, informative and hard-hitting, Breakfast Beat packs a mean punch. This show is a current affairs and actuality show, which focuses mainly on issues that are of concern to the community that Voice of the Cape serves. The show feature interviews with prominent politicians, community activists, religious leaders, academic experts…

13 Nov 2014 5 min

CPF elections - Landmark partnership signed

Before the break we spoke to Abie Isaacs about the Mitchells Plain CPF elections last night. Now it’s very interesting to note that a new partnership between the Department of Community Safety, SAPS and the IEC was signed yesterday to ensure that elections are done fairly and democratically. Our reporter…

13 Nov 2014 6 min

Mitchells Plain CPF elections

Recently, we’ve been speaking to many community police forums in the Western Cape with regards to crime. And this month, all CPF’s are holding elections. Mitchell’s Plain CPF, which is an every active crime fighting collective, held their elections last night. Abie Isaacs from the CPF is online to tell us more…

13 Nov 2014 7 min

Community Safety MEC visits Canal Walk

The alarming trend of retail store robberies has prompted shopping malls to boost their security ahead of the festive season. As we know, Canal Walk has been hardest hit. Western Cape Minister of Community Safety, Dan Plato, visited Canal Walk yesterday to inspect operations there. VOC news journalist Andriques Petersen…

12 Nov 2014 6 min

City launched its 100th FreeCall Line

Complaints from residents on municipal services are quite frequent and generally, we find that members of public have even more hassles lodging these complaints. Many people are not aware of the City of Cape Town’s free call line. I believe Heideveld got the 100th free call line yesterday, The City…

12 Nov 2014 7 min

Open letter to Woolies CEO

A group of pro-Palestinian activists have written a letter to Ian Moir, the CEO of the Woolworths group calling on the national retailer to stop marketing and retailing Israeli goods. As we know, the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign has lead a full boycott against the company, for its trade…

12 Nov 2014 10 min

MJC independent advisory panel

Earlier before the break we heard about this ground breaking move by the MJC to launch an independent advisory panel. Joining us online this morning is the convenor of the nominations committee, Abdul Waheed Patel. He is also the managing director of Ethicore consulting…

12 Nov 2014 5 min

MJC makes major announcement

There may be some major shake-ups with in the Muslim Judicial Council soon, after the announcement of an independent advisory panel yesterday. The announcement is quite significant for the 89 year old ulema body. Our reporter Ra’eesah Isaacs has this important story…

12 Nov 2014 8 min

RAF Amendment Bill up for public comment

The draft Road Accident Fund Amendment Bill, 2014 has been published for public comment this week. One of the amendments is the introduction of a "no-fault" 30-day period which would allow all accident victims to receive medical treatment. But let’s unpack it further with the Road Accident Fund’s Chris Willemse…

11 Nov 2014 6 min

Uitsig crime meeting

Uitsig residents are up in arms after a learner was hacked to death outside the Uitsig high school on Sunday. While we generally focus on other areas when it comes to daily gang violence, we tend to forget that the Uitsig community is one that has also been severely impacted…

11 Nov 2014 4 min

Masajid urged to get foreigners legalised 

With the demographic of South Africa’s Muslim community changing, we find that there are many foreign nationals employed at our local masajid. While that is a positive, the downside is that many of these foreigners do not have legal permits to work here. This poses a huge challenge to the…

11 Nov 2014 6 min

Innovative intervention to leverage almost 300 joint surgeries

Many people have had a long wait for joint replacement surgery, which causes great discomfort and pain on a daily basis. In addition, the backlog has been increasing faster than the Department of health can address, since more patients have been added weekly to the operating waiting list. The provincial…

10 Nov 2014 6 min