Minister Simelane, Vitrovian and the Kusile cash grab

Loading player...
Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane is in hot water, again. On Monday, News24's investigations team revealed that the minister bagged a cool R700 000 from an Eskom contractor for an invoice she signed off on in 2011. Vitrovian, an ANC-linked company, scored more than R300 million from Eskom over seven years using inflated invoices." The entire contract... the entire Vitrovian situation should have never happened in the first place. It shouldn't have existed," says News24’s senior investigative journalist Kyle Cowan. In our latest edition of The Lead, Cowan details how Simelane pocketed tax rands and whether the Special Investigating Unit is any closer to finalising its multifaceted probe into Eskom corruption. Later, we focus on how the government of national unity's testy internal negotiations to pass a budget dragged on. And finally, from her old Opel to her Bajaj Qute, Helen Zille prefers to keep her rides budget friendly.
Chapters
  • 00:01 Graeme's intro
  • 01:45 Interview with Kyle Cowan
  • 28:41 Trending topic: GNU budget talks
  • 29:54 And finally: Zille's motoring moments
  • 31:02 Graeme's outro
31 Mar 2025 English South Africa News · Society & Culture

Other recent episodes

The Daveyton Muti Murders Part 2

NOTE: Listener’s discretion is strongly advised. In Part 2 of News24’s narrative podcast investigation, The Daveyton Muti Murders, we honour the memory of budding Wits University student, Wandile Jasop, and detail a deeply disturbing cycle of extreme violence unfolding in the historic Ekurhuleni town in the late 2010s. Reported over nearly six…
28 Aug 23 min

TRAILER: The Daveyton Muti Murders - a News24 narrative podcast investigation

News24 this Sunday, 23 August, brings you The Daveyton Muti Murders, a three-part narrative podcast investigation into the historical Ekurhuleni town’s disturbing history of ritual killings. The saga begins with Jabulani Mntungwa, a 20-year-old aspiring young man who leaves his sleepy hometown of eMkhondo for the bright lights of Gauteng’s…
21 Aug 1 min

The Daveyton Muti Murders Part 1

Please note: Listener’s discretion is strongly advised. News24 this Sunday brings you The Daveyton Muti Murders, a three-part narrative podcast investigation into the historical Ekurhuleni town’s disturbing history of ritual killings. The saga begins with Jabulani Mntungwa, a 20-year-old aspiring young man who leaves his sleepy hometown of eMkhondo for the…
21 Aug 23 min

Digesting the anti-immigrant marches, with Bongekile Macupe, Sakhiseni Nxumalo

In this edition of The Lead with Graeme Raubenheimer, we assess the immediate aftermath of the June 30th anti-immigration marches with News24’s deputy politics editor, Bongekile Macupe, and Durban journalist, Sakhiseni Nxumalo. Macupe witnessed firsthand how pockets of violence took over the mass demonstration in Johannesburg, while Nxumalo observed a…
1 Jul 40 min

What happens after 30 June’s anti-migrant marches? With Sakhiseni Nxumalo

With the clock ticking on the 30 June “deadline” set by anti-migrant groups, will peace prevail as marchers take to the streets this Tuesday? With so many foreigners queuing up in Durban and other parts of the country, to somehow find a way home, what happens then when this cutoff comes…
29 Jun 30 min